For Pete’s sake: Marc Fliedner, an openly gay former prosecutor, isn’t the only candidate waging a write-in campaign for Manhattan district attorney. Pete Gleason, a Tribeca resident who ran against Councilmember Margaret Chin eight years ago in the Democratic primary, is hoping people will pencil in his name, too. Gleason also challenged District Attorney Cy Vance four years ago — as a Republican. He didn’t manage to get more than 13 percent of the vote either time. Gleason has proactively declared that he unequivocally will not accept the endorsement, if offered, of the New York Post because he feels the tabloid unfairly treated a former client of his, a school principal who had been involved in a sex scandal. “The deciding factor to neither seek nor accept the New York Post’s endorsement was the analogy between the Harvey Weinstein debacle and how the Post has treated another woman, my client, the victim of revenge porn Annie Siefullah,” Gleason said. The former firefighter-turned-attorney said Vance’s gross mishandling of the Weinstein case is his motivation for running this time around. He told us his top five campaign planks are: equal access to justice, bail reform, term limits for D.A.’s (three four-year terms), an audit of all campaign donations to the Manhattan D.A. over the last eight years, and barring lobbyists from having access to the office. One local politico noted Vance is extremely lucky the Weinstein story didn’t break, say, back in April, when potential challengers still had time to petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot.
Food news: We hear word that Westside Market is coming to the former Mrs. Green’s space on Hudson St. between Bank and Bethune Sts. This comes as welcome news to Village residents in that neck of the woods, who were sad to see Mrs. Green’s close at the end of last year after only a short run in the space. The store had been met with pickets by the Village Independent Democrats and others for fighting unionizing efforts. But many locals really loved Mrs. Green’s, in particular, its prepared foods. Westside Market, meanwhile, is poised to become a local grocery juggernaut of sorts, since it already has a well-established store up at Seventh Ave. between W. 14th and W. 15th Sts. (We’ve personally always enjoyed their little containers of premade couscous and tabouleh salads — also their goofily creative cheese signs.) Westside Market at the Hudson St. spot, of course, could pose some competition to the D’Agostino a block away on Greenwich Sts., which has the distinction of being the only supermarket that we know of with carpeting. And a few blocks away, Gourmet Garage at Seventh Ave. South at W. 10th St. recently reopened after being closed for a spell. Basically, support columns in the store needed to be bolstered because the landlord is adding some stories on top of the building. During the closure, the market upgraded its refrigerated cases. And let’s not forget Brooklyn Fare, a recent addition in the Archive building, at Christopher and Greenwich Sts., which is also part of the new Village supermarket mix.
Dollars debate: Eco Justice Party candidate Marni Halasa is slamming Councilmember Corey Johnson for being the “big money” candidate for City Council in District 3. She chided that he did not participate in the city’s campaign-finance program and so had no cap on his fundraising and has raked in about half a million dollars in contributions. However, Johnson’s team told us that he technically was not allowed to participate in the campaign-finance program to qualify for matching funds because he didn’t have an opponent in the primary election in September.
