Commuter taxman: At last week’s Community Board 2 meeting, State Senator Tom Duane — after telling those present not to tell anyone — announced he plans to go to the mat to restore the city’s commuter tax. The Assembly’s repeal of the tax a few years ago was green-lighted, of course, by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and has cost the city $600 million each year ever since. Duane said he’ll hold a press conference on April 15 (coincidentally, the deadline for filing taxes) to kick off his commuter-tax campaign. For some reason, though, he doesn’t want the word out yet. Noticing us taking notes, he scolded, “Put that pen down!” — then added, “The one way to get something in The Villager is to say, ‘Don’t put this in The Villager.’ ”
Achtung baby: Members of the Federation of East Village Artists are pulling together to help Peter Missing return to his adopted home of Berlin, Germany. “We’re getting him a ticket. It’s already done,” said Joseph Puppelo, FEVA’s executive director. “It’s not really a story,” Puppelo dismissed, referring to the recent flurry of e-mails on FEVA’s listserv about Missing, more than a few of which questioned whether the organization was doing enough to assist him. For a few years now, the anarchist artist and former Missing Foundation front man — a major neighborhood figure in the late 1980s and early 1990s — has been living on Alphabet City’s streets and hawking his artwork to survive. FEVA critics ask if aiding Missing isn’t part of the group’s mission, what is? Members have been offering to chip in small amounts of cash to help buy the ticket — “I’ve got some Euros left over from my trip to Ireland,” one artist wrote, saying Missing could need it when he lands — but some say a certain FEVA board member paid the lion’s share. Pupello plans to go with Missing to the immigration office to help him get his passport, which is damaged, back in shape. “His passport is damaged,” confirmed Clayton Patterson, whose gallery Missing drops by from time to time. Missing’s ticket is for Jan. 26.
This ain’t no disco: We asked Bob Rinaolo what his plans are for the former Beatrice Inn restaurant on W. 12th St., a local favorite that recently closed for good not long after he purchased the building. “I’m just the landlord,” Rinaolo told us. “I wouldn’t have sold The Garage if I was going to stay in the business.” Rinaolo recently unloaded The Garage, the restaurant he ran for many years on Seventh Ave. S.
Welcome! At the C.B. 2 meeting we were sitting next to Anthony Perrotta, one of the two new members, along with Lisa Canistracci, recently appointed to the board. “I’m one of the slugs,” Perrotta deadpanned by way of introduction, referring to the recent photo in board member Don MacPherson’s Soho Journal showing a slug with the caption: “Recent appointee by [former] Borough President Fields to Community Board 2.”
Secret Cambodia materials: At the Art Commission hearing on the Washington Square Park renovation earlier this month, Edy Selman, a local, vocal opponent of the project, announced that New York University had already brazenly produced promotional materials showing the park’s fountain — complete with new spouting water display — moved to align with the arch. Asked by The Villager if we could see the alleged promotional materials, Selman said a fellow renovation opponent, Susan Goren, might have it, but was flying back from Cambodia.
Trans cam: Melissa Sklarz, chairperson of the C.B. 2 L.G.B.T. Committee, has a cameo in the new movie “Transamerica.” In the scene where Bree (formerly Stanley, played by Felicity Hoffman) and Toby visit one of their transgendered friends during their cross-country trip, they meet a lively group of transgendered folks planning a cruise. Sklarz, one of the partiers, tells how she met her partner. “They’re supposed to be in Texas, but it was shot on the Jersey Shore,” Sklarz said. “It was fun. I got an invitation to join the Screen Actors Guild, which I will hang on the wall. I have no interest in joining.” Sklarz isn’t sure yet if she’s leaving C.B. 2 even though she bought a Queens co-op, since she said, “I still have community involvement.” She said she’ll discuss it with Councilmember Chris Quinn, who appointed her to the board, and a decision will be made in the next week or two.
Busy schedule: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer plans to preside at monthly borough board meetings (at which the chairpersons of Manhattan’s 12 community boards convene) and also at the 12 monthly individual district services cabinet meetings (attended by the district manager from the local community board and representatives of city agencies). That sounds like an awful lot of meetings, but that’s what his no-nonsense deputy, Rose Pierre-Louis, announced last week.
This land-use is made for you and me: Anthony Borelli, district manager of Chelsea and Clinton’s Community Board 4 for the last five years, is the new director of land-use for Borough President Stringer. He’ll help Stringer make land-use policy and review all land-use decisions going through the community boards and the borough board.
Graffiti tag team: After all their wrangling over the gun-packing 50 Cent mural Andre Charles painted on E. Third St., we would have expected Charles or Chico — the latter who has blasted the mural’s violent content — either to have painted over the gun or the entire mural by now. But neither graffiti artist has made good on his pledge to paint something “more positive” in the space. Meanwhile, block residents just want the offensive mural gone and complain it’s attracting lots of mediocre graffiti around it.
