Don’t make him angry: Oops…too late! The Incredible Hulk — a.k.a. nuclear physicist Bruce Banner after an adrenaline rush — was in Tompkins Square Park last Saturday. Why?… Why not?
Political palaver: In the primary race for the 65th Assembly District, Paul Newell announced last week that Councilmember Rosie Mendez has endorsed him in his bid to win fallen former Speaker Sheldon Silver’s old Lower Manhattan seat. Alice Cancel has been the assemblymember since taking a special election in April. Mendez, though, didn’t back Newell in the run-up to the Democratic County Committee vote in February — which picked the Democratic nominee for the special election — but backed Cancel. Cancel, in turn, went on to beat Lester Chang and Yuh-Line Niou, running on the G.O.P. and Working Families Party lines, respectively, in the special election. So what exactly made Mendez flip? It’s simple, she told us: Her political organization, Coalition for a District Alternative, has endorsed Newell in the special election, and, well, she dutifully towed the political club line. Councilmember Margaret Chin is no longer backing Cancel, either, having switched her support to Gigi Li, the former Community Board 3 chairperson who is also running in the crowded field for the 65th A.D. Chin did not publicly endorse Cancel last time until April, however — in other words, after the County Committee had already picked Cancel as the Democratic nominee, at which point, Li was no longer in the running — at least not for that election. For his part, John Quinn, Cancel’s husband, shrugged off losing Mendez’s support, saying they had understood all along that she would switch her allegiance once CoDA went for Newell. Cancel is definitely running for re-election in September, he assured, adding that they will be rolling out some endorsements of their own soon, including a prominent Bronx Latina pol who Cancel has been close to for years. Meanwhile, Newell proclaimed in a press release that he is the “clear front-runner,” in terms of his fundraising prowess. But, in fact, other candidates in the six-person race appear to be doing as well, if not better, than him in that department. Unruffled, Quinn said they think Cancel has a good chance of holding onto her seat. “This is a grassroots campaign,” he said, noting his wife is known for going to court with residents to help them fight evictions and working with local youth to put them on the right path. She’s hardly known for prodigious fundraising, though, so it will be interesting to see if her grassroots support will pull her through to victory. Quinn, who was busy helping out his wife in Albany before the session ended last month, is not running for re-election as Democratic state committeeman.
Purple pain: The Villager recently exclusively reported that the cause of death of Lower East Side hairdresser Loren Kirby and an East Village friend, Julio Fabian, in March was due to acute intoxication from a mix of substances, including the highly potent fentanyl. The report failed to note, however, that in June, it was determined that the dangerous opioid was also found to be the cause of rock musician Prince’s death. It’s thought that Prince may have become addicted to the substance, which is exponentially more powerful than morphine.
Not seeing the lights: Developer Bill Rudin, as part of his Greenwich Lane luxury condos project on the former St. Vincent’s Hospital site, agreed to pay for the installation of vintage-style bishop’s crook street lampposts on both W. 11th and W. 12th Sts., former Councilmember Carol Greitzer tells us. Rudin was going to give $100,000 for the project, said Greitzer, who lives on W. 12th St. “At first, the Department of Transportation turned it down, but Borough President Gale Brewer got them to agree…months ago,” Greitzer said. “But nothing has happened. The city is still looking for a ‘creative’ way to accept money.” Hey, guys — c’mon, let’s get those creative juices flowing and work it out already!
