Talking L.E.S. politics…or not? Depending on who you talk to, either all is not well between the Democratic district leaders in the 65th Assembly District, Part C, or, well…everything’s fine. We recently had a sit-down with John Quinn, the area’s Democratic state committeeman, and he tells us that Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar, the part’s two young co-district leaders, have not been talking to each other for the last three or four months, which roughly coincides with when former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was starting to feel the heat over his repeated refusal to report his outside income. Then, of course, in late January, Silver was arrested on federal charges, and soon after, was pressured into resigning his speakership, then indicted for allegedly scheming to garner $4 million in graft over the past decade. Quinn is concerned, first of all, because he is a big fan of Silver and all he has done for the Lower East Side, but also because the district leaders appear to be on the outs — the assumption being that they both would want to run for Silver’s seat should he eventually step down. But both Newell and Rajkumar told us that everything’s hunky-dory between them, even if they’re not exactly BFF’s right now. “Jenifer Rajkumar is my co-district leader and we continue to work together,” Newell said. “We talk all the time together at events. It is untrue that we don’t talk. When we’re working on a thing together, which is a lot, we’re talking.” As for whether he and Rajkumar would run for Assembly, he said, “I can’t comment on anyone else’s intentions. We’re talking about a potential race a very long way away. I would very seriously consider the race. I’m sure, if there is a contested Assembly race in Lower Manhattan, there will be a number of well-qualified candidates. Right now, I’m focused on renewal of rent regulations and other issues.” Newell added he was planning to go up to Albany this past Monday to lobby for increased capital funding for the New York City Housing Authority. “Lots of balls in the air,” he said. As for Rajkumar, she told us, “When this happened with Shelly, it really was a huge torpedo that changed the landscape. … If the seat does open, I’d consider it.” She added that she and Newell did recently speak to each other at the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club at a planning session for another “Candles for Clemency” rally to pressure the governor to grant more pardons for prisoners. Meanwhile, Rajkumar, in fact, is doing quite a lot of talking — though not to Newell — in an exciting new gig as a panelist on PBS’s “To the Contrary,” which she described as a “women’s perspective on national issues.” The show airs nationally, and locally on Channel 13, on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. The panel usually includes two Democrats and two Republicans, and Rajkumar will be a frequent panelist. The last installment discussed healthcare and the economy. Although the conversation is vigorous, it’s “without the tone of ‘Crossfire,’ ” she said. “Everyone politely disagrees.” Another name that has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Assembly is Gigi Li, chairperson of Community Board 3. As for Quinn, he wants anyone who runs for the seat — should Silver vacate it — to voluntarily pledge to serve no more than three two-year terms. “I need somebody in there who’s going to pick a fight,” he explained, “to come out of the gate, not someone who’s there to settle in.” Above all, the third-generation Lower East Sider is crestfallen over Silver’s downfall. “With Shelly, the Lower East Side had the power. Shelly has been the best thing to happen to the Lower East Side since Alfred E. Smith. … I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Stealth E.V. housing plan: It started off with one East Village squat. Then it was two squats. Now, we hear that two buildings owned by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development that were in the TIL (Tenant Interim Lease) Program are also in the mix. As we previously reported, the de Blasio administration is working on a plan to bring in a so-called “white knight” developer, BFC Partners, led by Donald Capoccia, to renovate a couple of former East Village squats — 544 E. 13th St. (where actress Rosario Dawson grew up) and 377 E. 10th St. — that, after more than a decade, just haven’t been able to get it together and fix up their buildings as up-to-code affordable co-ops. Now, word has it that BFC and the city are trying to work a deal for two H.P.D.-owned buildings, 507-509 E. 11th St. and 66 E. Third St. (The former was the subject of a 1992 book, “Rock Solid,” about police and drug dealing, we’re told.) In return, for renovating all these buildings, BFC would get the unused development rights from these sites, which it could then use for new market-rate construction elsewhere in the Community Board 3 district. Could all these air rights even be stacked up on top of each other to create a new luxury building? No one really seems to know. John Shuttleworth, a former C.B. 3 member who lives in the E. Third St. building, noted that under the 2008 East Village / L.E.S. rezoning, the area was actually “upzoned” somewhat, which means there are more unused development rights floating around out there now that folks like Capoccia can capitalize on. BFC reps recently met with the E. Third St. tenants. “They came here and they talked to us, and they said absolutely nothing,” scoffed Connie Barrett, Shuttleworth’s partner. “We asked for a written proposal, and they didn’t want to put anything in writing.” The 22-unit building currently has eight vacant apartments. The tenants would all have to be behind the plan for it to go forward. “How can we do anything until we see something in writing?” Barrett asked. “All we’ve been shown is a fact sheet.” “It’s very dangerous, in my opinion,” Shuttleworth told us. “De Blasio is changing things, where inclusionary zoning things can be moved around.” Under the plan, the property would be transferred into the hands of a community-based group, similar to Cooper Square Mutual Housing, he said. So far, the city is being tightlipped about it all.
Artists uprising: Tenants at Westbeth have found themselves at legal loggerheads with their own board of directors. George Cominskie, president of the resident-elected Westbeth Artists Residents Council, said WARC recently filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the state Attorney General’s Office for public records for the artists’ affordable housing complex, and the A.G. was all ready to release the documents. But the board of directors of the Westbeth Housing Development Fund Corporation sued the A.G., filing an Article 78 lawsuit — a whopping 101 pages long — to block the records’ release. The A.G. moved to dismiss the suit, so it’s now up to a judge to decide. Basically, residents feel it’s their right to know what’s going on with their legendary full-square-block housing complex, at West and Bethune Sts. Cominskie recently presented a report, “Future of Westbeth Update,” at a tenants meeting. All the tenants really want to do, as the report details, is assure the place’s financial health and future affordability, plus — critically — “develop a culture of transparency.” And there are lots of specific questions, such as about the artist-in-residency program — which the board certified a year ago without any WARC input — the outside waiting list for the place’s coveted apartments and the in-house moves list, to name just a few. “My gut feeling is why is the board fighting so hard to keep the A.G. from releasing these records?” Cominskie told us. Carmi Bee, the president of the board of directors, did not respond to requests for comment. But Cominskie sent us a copy of the Article 78 suit, the 101 pages of which can be simply summed up by one word, “confidentiality,” which appears repeatedly throughout and which the board seems to feel applies to virtually everything action it takes.
Inside poop on CHARAS: So what’s going on with the stalled dorm project at 605 E. Ninth St., the old P.S. 64 and, more recently, home to the CHARAS/El Bohio Cultural and Community Center? A partial stop-work order appears still in effect, after the Department of Buildings, last fall, found problems with developer Gregg Singer’s contracts with potential tenants. Susan Howard of SOCCC64 (Save Our CHARAS Community Center 64) gave us the update. “Nothing to report yet, except porta potties arrived at CHARAS recently, so work must be imminent. SOCCC64 will be meeting soon to discuss plans.”
Occupy Tour? Hel-lo? Relieve the human-microphone experience. (Re-live…the….hu-man….mi-cro-phone….ex-per-i-ence!!!) See where hundreds of tents once blanketed a private park in Lower Manhattan, where activists pilloried the 1 percent, and where Ben and Jerry doled out free Cherry Garcia to the revolutionary masses. A new #Occupy TourNYC was set to launch this week. Sounds like fun. Activist John Penley recently put us in touch with the guy running it…but by this week information about it had vanished from Facebook and Twitter. Hmm…maybe just finding the radical tour is part of the experience? … Occupy!
Corrections: Last week’s article on the Spectra pipeline raised the fear that a vault the pipeline connects to that is located near the new Whitney Museum on Gansevoort St. would be near artwork purportedly stored in the museum’s basement. However, Amanda Angel, the Whitney’s communications manager, said that is untrue. “I want to make clear there will be no art stored in the basement of our new building,” she said. “In fact, no art will be below grade, and almost all of it — with the exception of a small lobby-level gallery — will be on the fifth floor or higher.” … In addition, an article on the new glass dome approved for the former Tammany Hall building at 17th St. and Park Ave. South incorrectly said the dome would be illuminated at night. It won’t be.
