Good P.R. for police: Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has brought Michael Julian — a former chief who served under him — out of retirement, appointing him the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of training. A former commander of the East Village’s Ninth Precinct, Julian left the force to run security at Madison Square Garden and Rockefeller Center. Activist John Penley recalls Julian well. “After the Tompkins Square Park 1988 riot, Julian was transferred from his job as head of the N.Y.P.D. Police Academy to the Ninth Precinct because he is a smart guy and looks like a GQ model,” Penley said. “On his first day at Tompkins Square he showed up at the park alone while people were attacking the Christodora House. Some squatters who recognized him jumped him and kind of beat him up. The attack led to a permanent knee injury. I was there and photographed it and the photos are in my archive at the Tamiment Library. One of the funniest things that I saw while he was at the Ninth Precinct was when we occupied an old school on E. Fourth St. on New Years Eve. Peter Missing was performing with a bullhorn inside the school, and even though the cops had barricaded the front door, people found a way in to the back door through the projects on E. Fifth St. In a short time no one was on the street in front of the school since everyone was inside. Julian with about 10 cops broke in the front door. But upon seeing how many people were inside by then, they took one look and turned around and left. This was the best New Years party I have been to, and the photos of Julian and the cops inside the front door are in my archive as well.” In his graphic novel about the East Village squatters, “War in the Neighborhood,” Seth Tobocman, Penley’s former roommate, drew Julian as a regal-looking Pontius Pilate, sporting a toga and Roman uniform, in the chapter “The Tragedy of 319 East 8th Street.” “Pilate was the guy who washed his hands and claimed innocence,” Tobocman explained. “That was my feeling about Julian, that he tried very hard to change policy, but he couldn’t. Julian’s role was to kindly and nobly talk us out of the buildings. He was put in after the ’88 riot. He was a good P.R. guy. He could talk to the media, he was good-looking, he was hip. At 319 E. Eighth St., he talked the squatters out and said the building would be up till the court date, but it was demolished.” Although in Tobocman’s view, Bill de Blasio is the best mayor since the cartoonist moved to the East Village in the 1970s, it will take more than Julian to change the Police Department’s culture. “The problem is structural,” he said.
C.B. 2 unity: We hear that after last Thursday’s Community Board 2 chairperson election, Tobi Bergman, the winner, and Bo Riccobono, who ran a strong second, went out to dinner together to bury the hatchet. Meanwhile, much of the rest of C.B. 2 accompanied outgoing Chairperson David Gruber to Fanelli’s for beers, burgers and a champagne toast that included some lusty “L’chaim!” ’s.
CHARAS insider: CHARAS supporters are putting on a push to persuade the city to take back the old P.S. 64, at 605 E. Ninth St., back from Gregg Singer and restore it as a community center. But if the developer is ever going to consider selling, it probably won’t be cheap. After the big victory rally two months ago after the Department of Buildings slapped a stop-work order on Singer’s dorm project, Councilmember Rosie Mendez told us that Singer has rejected two offers for the building in the past. One was by a for-profit group that included a relative of NBC TV news reporter Lynda Baquero, who grew up in the neighborhood, and another was by a local nonprofit, which Mendez declined to name. The offers ranged from $35 million to $40 million, which, according to Mendez, was the building’s assessed value in 2006 after it was landmarked. However, Singer was asking for $86 million at the time.
V.I.D. showdown: In shades of the Clintons, Nadine Hoffmann announced she is running to succeed her husband, Tony Hoffmann, as president of the Village Independent Democrats political club. Jim Fouratt promptly announced that he will run against her. Fouratt is calling for a debate before the club’s Dec. 11 election, but it’s not clear it will happen.
Pavilion waiting game: Still no word from the Parks Department on whether the Union Square pavilion will see a return of the swanky Chef Driven Market cafe, or whether the eatery will be relegated to the pavement outside the historic structure. As The Villager first reported last month, state Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried each independently reported in their community newsletters that they’d been assured by the de Blasio administration that, after its first season in the pavilion, the restaurant would be getting booted outside. But Parks is reportedly still studying the issue as to whether the eatery’s first season was a success or a failure, which could determine what happens next. “The assessment has not yet been completed,” a department spokesperson told us. (Hey, c’mon, at this rate, the new turtle roof will be built on Tammany Hall before a decision is made!)
J.T. crew: A small group of family, close friends, Schwab House neighbors and colleagues gathered for an informal memorial for Jerry Tallmer at ’Cesca restaurant, on W. 75th St., on Fri., Nov. 14. The great newspaperman and writer died Sun., Nov. 9, at age 93. Among them were Frances Monica Tallmer, his widow; her niece, Julie Monica, and her husband, Tommy Gannon; Jonathan Slaff, the theatrical press agent who was so helpful to Tallmer toward the end while Tallmer was at the Dewitt nursing facility; former Villager publishers Elizabeth Butson and John W. Sutter; Villager Editor in Chief Lincoln Anderson; John Martello, former executive director of the Players Club; and — in a theatrically apropos “six degrees of separation” — Amy Gross, an attorney representing Tallmer who is married to Mark Hasselberger, The Villager’s former graphic artist. Slaff read aloud Tallmer’s “A Bright Shiny Pin,” about G.G., the spirited maid who raised him and meant so much to him. (Read it on Page 12 of this week’s issue.) Sutter recalled Tallmer’s great column in The Villager about how he reported on the day that J.F.K. died — how a familiar newsvendor had solemnly told Tallmer, “It’s like a great tree that’s been cut down.” Butson, a jazz aficionado, recounted the story of how Billie Holiday was supposed to perform at the Village Vanguard one night but was a no-show. Art D’Lugoff, the Vanguard’s legendary owner, and Tallmer decided Tallmer would drive down to Philly and search for the singer, who he eventually found after searching high and low in all the bars. Tallmer drove the soused chanteuse back to the Big Apple and made sure to give her plenty of coffee so she was ready to go on when they got to the Vanguard. Anderson read the obituary he wrote about Tallmer — got a bit choked up at one point, downed a glass of wine and kept reading — and got a round of applause. Julie Monica and Tommy Gannon remembered their first impressions of Tallmer. “The pocket protector,” Monica said. “But he had a leather jacket, and the long hair. He was a cool nerd.” Gannon recalled being impressed. “He’s seen everyone,” he said. “Nobody can bulls— this guy.” Tallmer was cremated. “I’m happy to have his ashes in my home,” Frances said. As for a larger memorial, Slaff said something may be in the works at Theater for the New City. It would be free and organized by Martello, but no date has been set.
Correction: The public meeting by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation on potential landmarking and rezoning proposals for the University Place and Broadway corridors will be held Thurs., Dec. 4, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Baha’i Center, 53 E. 11th St., east of University Place. The talking point on this subject in last week’s issue incorrectly gave the date as Tues., Dec. 2.
