Smokin’ Cuban fundraiser: The “A Night in Old Havana” fundraiser at P.S. 110, the Florence Nightingale School, at 285 Delancey St., last Saturday night was the place to be. Leading P.T.A. member Kathleen Keene told us the event was on track to raise close to the target of $50,000 — corporate matching funds and proceeds from an online auction were still coming in as of this week. The funds will pay for in-school enrichment programs by Paul Taylor Dance, the National Dance Institute and Third St. Music School, plus chess for all students from kindergarten to fifth grade. Some of the top items at the night’s auction were tickets to the sold-out “Hamilton” and “School of Rock” Broadway musicals. People also bid in a silent auction on items like jewelry and Cuban cigars. Keene added that P.S. 110 is also still pushing for a donation from Givenchy, which monopolized the area around the school for its Fashion Week show last year.
In the crowd: Among the throng at the P.S. 110 fundraiser were some local political parents — plus one of The Villager’s on-the-scene cartoonists. Chad Marlow, the ever-opinionated member of Community Board 3, and his wife, Goldie Weixel, were there, as well as our every-other-week cartoonist Evan Forsch and his wife, Lauren. Not a school parent, District Leader Paul Newell was also there — “working the room,” as they say — having come with his childhood friend Robin Sandler, who is also a P.S. 110 dad. The Forsches, if you haven’t already heard, currently have a pop-up shop, L.E.S. Popped, in a storefront formerly home to an Italian restaurant in the Seward Park Co-op’s commercial strip on Grand St. It features handmade arts from the Lower East Side.
Check it out! They’re actually hoping to make it an ongoing affair. (We won’t even get into the controversy about the neighboring Kossar’s bialies store, its Saturday hours and the whole rabbi-certification issue. Oy!) For his part, Newell told us he had been at Coalition for a District Alternative’s endorsement votes earlier that evening and gave us the report. Basically, CoDA members decided not to endorse in the upcoming 65th Assembly District special election, feeling they wanted to hold their fire for the “real election,” the primary, in which more than one Democrat will be running — including Newell, among others — and which will be in September. Newell said of the four candidates on the special election ballot, only Yuh-Line Niou showed up to ask for the club’s endorsement. Newell personally spoke for no endorsement. Newell also reported that CoDA endorsed District Leader Carlina Rivera — for the September 2017 primary election — to succeed City Councilmember Rosie Mendez, who will be term-limited out of office at the end of that year. It’s most certainly a long way off, but as Newell said, “That’s how CoDA does it.”
‘Raj’ event all the rage: Another expected candidate in the September primary for the 65th A.D., District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar recently held a fundraiser at Chinatown’s Jing Fong restaurant. She was praised by supporters, including Allen Roskoff of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, which endorsed her back in January, saying she would be “a strong voice in Albany for reform and transparency.”
Candidates forum: The Villager and our sister paper Downtown Express will be teaming up with the League of Women Voters of New York to host a candidates forum for the April 19 special election for the 65th Assembly District. The forum is currently set for Thurs., March 31, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Downtown Alliance business improvement district’s LMHQ space, at 150 Broadway, 20th floor. The Alliance is also a co-sponsor of the forum. The event will be moderated by Lincoln Anderson, editor in chief of The Villager, and Laura Altschuler of the League of Women Voters. Invite letters went out to all four candidates earlier this week. So far, as of this Wednesday, Dennis Levy, running on the Green Party line, had confirmed that he will participate. Two other candidates, Yuh-Line Niou, running on the Working Families Party line, and Lester Chang, running as the Republican, Reform, Liberal and Clean Up the Mess candidate, have acknowledged receipt of the invites, and Altschuler is awaiting their confirmation that they will attend. She is still waiting for word back from Alice Cancel, the Democratic Party nominee. Altschuler, who took the lead in setting up the forum, said it’s extremely important for the Lower Manhattan Assembly district to get to know the candidates and their views on the issues, since the district was represented for nearly 40 years by Sheldon Silver, until he was stripped of office late last year after his federal corruption convictions. So this is a historic moment and opportunity for change in the district.
Welcome aboard! Well known to East Village activists and community gardeners, Harry Bubbins was named the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s new East Village and special projects director. Bubbins previously served as the founding director of Friends of Brook Park, a leading environmental and community advocacy organization based in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. He has had a direct hand in helping to preserve affordable housing, in jump-starting a number of green spaces in the South Bronx, and in helping to spearhead successful grassroots campaigns, from preserving more than 100 community gardens from the auction block to protecting public parkland on Randall’s Island. We remember seeing him speak at the memorial for slain squatter activist Brad Will at La Plaza Cultural some years ago.
Kushner comeback: The print version of last week’s Villager article on the 118 E. Fourth St. tenants’ lawsuit against landlord Jared Kushner regarding substandard living conditions did not include an extensive statement from Kushner’s side. Subsequently, Westminster Management sent us the following statement: “Regretfully, the gas at 118 E. Fourth St. was shut off by Con Ed due to safety concerns from residents last October. That turn-off caused loss of heat, hot water and cooking gas in the building on Oct. 12. We secured expedited approval from the Department of Buildings, made necessary gas line repairs, and restored heat and hot water on Oct. 21, once Con Ed was able to inspect the new gas line. Currently, nearly all of the building’s cooking gas has been restored, and we are actively working to safely ensure that the entire building has cooking gas. At the same time, we have recently taken a number of actions to address tenant concerns, including providing additional trash bins to accommodate garbage overflow; engaging an exterminating contractor to provide a complete building evaluation; and working with an electrician to ensure equipment is properly installed and maintained. Westminster Management takes complaints from residents seriously and we are committed to strengthening our management-tenant relationship.”
