Monumental remarks: Although we caught up with Paul Newell as he was standing next to a sphinx sculpture in the Elizabeth St. Garden on Saturday at the garden’s Harvest Fest, the district leader left no mystery that he is interested in running for Sheldon Silver’s Assembly seat, should it become available. “There’s a trial starting next week,” he said, referring to the fallen speaker’s trial on corruption charges. “I’m preparing for any eventuality. I think there’s no question that Lower Manhattan is entering a new phase of leadership.” His co-district leader, Jenifer Rajkumar, is also interested in the seat. Asked his position on the Elizabeth St. Garden, Newell also was forthcoming, saying without hesitation, “I think open space is extremely important in a community like this.” As for those howling that the Downtown Independent Democrats slate of judicial delegates did awfully in the recent election in the 65th Assembly District, Newell, who was one of the candidates, said, “I am very proud of how we did. It was one club against four clubs. It was the first time we did a judicial delegate race in that district.”
String(er) theory: At the end of last year, as Mayor Bill de Blasio was struggling to regain his footing amid the police crisis — which was spiraling out of control after two cops were executed in Brooklyn — we couldn’t help but notice that Scott Stringer and Christine Quinn, too, were suddenly prominently being featured in the news and on the ’Net. Were they raising their profiles for a potential primary election challenge in 2017? Stringer at least is definitely seen as someone who is ready to run for mayor again if the moment is right. Back then, we asked political consultant Hank Sheinkopf what he thought about it all. But he said for an incumbent mayor to be unseated it would take a perfect storm, a tsunami, of problems, such as a combination of both crime and the schools being out of control at historic levels. “People don’t care if the mayor and police aren’t getting along,” Sheinkopf said. “They just want to feel safe.” We asked around to local progressive politicos then, and even at that dark moment for de Blasio, they mostly all said he had nothing to worry about. “It is very rare for anyone who is out of office for years to make a political comeback,” Sean Sweeney of Downtown Independent Democrats said of Quinn, adding, “It is no secret Stringer seeks the mayoralty some day. However, he is doing well and is secure in his position as comptroller. Mayor de Blasio would have to really slip in popularity for a Democrat in a secure office to risk challenging him.” Added Chad Marlow of Coalition for a District Alternative, “I think Scott Stringer will definitely be running for mayor…in 2021. The bottom would really have to drop out for de Blasio for Stringer to enter early. He’s a leading candidate for 2021, and there is no need to upset party insiders in order to try to get the job four years earlier.” But John Quinn, the Lower East Side State Democratic Committeeman, asked if he thought an incumbent mayor could be toppled, thought about it briefly, then blurted out, “David Dinkins!” Stringer, though, certainly seemed to send a message when, in a recent meeting with the editorial staff of NYC Community Media, he said he plans to host an “urban town hall” the same day de Blasio holds his announced progressive presidential forum for the Democratic candidates in Iowa. Stringer said his forum would cover issues like education, housing for homeless families, public housing, economic development and more, and would be held in Brooklyn. “I think you should do town hall meetings, not just in Iowa, but in New York City,” the comptroller stated, adding, “Yes, I’m going to do it the same night. I still think the big story is New York City.” Meanwhile, the police crisis has been replaced by the homeless crisis. On another subject, asked by The Villager how he feels about the N.Y.U. 2031 mega-project today, several years after some of his proposed recommendations as then-borough president for the project were nixed by the City Council, Stringer reflected, “I would say this process was not good for the community. I would say the N.Y.U. outcome was not fair to the community.” As for de Blasio’s defense against the political pushback on his out-of-town trips, his press office referred us to his comments to Brian Lehrer. “I think if you look at the history of New York City mayors, starting with Fiorello LaGuardia, who was one of the founder of the U.S. Conference of Mayors…,” de Blasio told Lehrer. “And Fiorello was one of the people who actually helped to push some of the ideas that became the New Deal, and helped to turn around the economy of the country, and certainly New York City. … And I think it is my job as well to try and get the bigger policy changes that will help address income inequality in this city. Forty-six percent of New Yorkers are at or near the poverty line because our minimum wage is too low, because our benefits are not guaranteed, because we don’t have progressive taxation on the federal level, and therefore there aren’t the resources to invest in things that would employ people and make the infrastructure changes we need.”
Express yourself: Speaking of Stringer, he’s on the cover of NYC Community Media’s newest publication, Manhattan Express, a bimonthly newspaper covering Manhattan north of 34th St. Since Villagers “never go north of 14th St.,” you might want to pick up this fine new paper (or read it online at manhattanexpressnews.com) to find out what’s going on up there — quite a lot, from the look of it! It’s edited by Paul Schindler, who also edits Gay City News. Check it out!
S.B.J.S.A. all the way! Support for the Small Business Jobs Survival Act is gathering steam — and sponsors — in the City Council. In a major pickup, Carlos Menchaca, chairperson of the Council’s Committee on Immigration and a leading new Latino political voice, has now thrown his support behind the S.B.J.S.A. The bill, which would help small merchants negotiate new leases after their old ones run out, has sat dormant in the Council for decades as the powers that be have refused to let it come up for a vote. But with 26 sponsors, the bill now has a majority of support in the 51-member Council. At the end of May, as first reported by The Villager, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito pledged that the Council would hold hearings on small business, covering the issue of lease extensions, among other things, and all possible legislative solutions.
Fire funds: We heard from East Village activist Ayo Harrington, who has been hired as the coordinator of survivors’ assistance for L.E.S. Ready at GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side), about how the disbursement of funds to victims of the catastrophic Second Ave. gas explosion has been going. Basically, Harrington said, GOLES received around $125,000 from the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. “We have distributed much more than that,” Harrington said, adding that there was also the money from various other sources, such as the benefit concert at Theatre 80, organized by Alan Kaufman, which raised $50,000. First priority for the funds are the permanently displaced tenants from 15 apartments that were destroyed, as well as the “long-term vacates” from severely damaged apartments at 125 Second Ave., according to Harrington.
‘Spear Tip’ Hurley set to fly: Last week, Lynne Brown, N.Y.U. senior vice president for university relations and public affairs, in an internal memo to “The University Leadership Team,” announced that Alicia Hurley, the university’s vice president for government affairs and community engagement, will be leaving the school at the end of December. After 20 years with N.Y.U., Hurley will be starting her own project management firm focused on private residential development and renovations. During her tenure, Hurley, “working across all levels of government,” Brown said, has helped bring in tens of millions of dollars in grants for N.Y.U. projects, from a groundbreaking asthma study in the South Bronx to an array of health initiatives, like a mobile dental van, and a large haul for the new nursing, dental and bioengineering facility on First Ave. Hurley has also been helping the newly renamed Tandon School of Engineering to flourish in Downtown Brooklyn and beyond. Villagers, however, know Hurley more for her more recent work negotiating approvals for a series of development and infrastructure projects that Brown called “vital to N.Y.U.” These include the E. 12th St. Dorm (now renamed Founders Hall), at the former St. Ann’s Church site, which Brown described as “a needed but controversial student residence”; N.Y.U. Law School’s Wilf Hall on MacDougal St., which includes a rebuilt Provincetown Playhouse, which Brown noted, “faced intense scrutiny from preservation advocates”; the expansion and upgrade of N.Y.U.’s cogeneration plant; and most notably the so-called N.Y.U. Core Plan, a.k.a. N.Y.U. 2031, which, Brown said, “allowed us to add much-needed academic space to our Washington Square campus.” As Brown put it, “Alicia was (in the words of Crain’s) at the ‘tip of the spear’ in the five-year planning process that led to the city’s approval of the N.Y.U. Core Plan in 2012.” (And yes, many Villagers — particularly those living on the two South Village superblocks — will definitely say they were speared — gored? — by N.Y.U. 2031. Ouch!) “On a personal note,” Brown’s memo continued, “I have watched Alicia grow over these last two decades, moving from a part-time graduate assistant in the government relations office to…ascending its ranks to lead the office during some of the most exciting but difficult times for the university. And, oh, she earned an N.Y.U. Ph.D. along the way!” Starting her own business has been a long-term goal of Hurley’s.
Oh, naux! Everyone else is shocked and dismayed by it, so it’s not surprising that Councilmember Corey Johnson also is “naux” fan of the M.T.A. NYC fauxcade for its emergency exhaust-fan plant at Mulry Square, at Greenwich Ave. and Seventh Ave. South. The bizarre Brutalist-mashup with empty windows has left everyone asking, “Is it finished?” Unfortunately, yes, it is. “The M.T.A. has spent so much time and money on this project, and it’s caused a lot of disruption to the neighborhood,” Johnson told us. “For them to leave the building looking like it does now is really quite disrespectful to the Greenwich Village community. We’re talking about a historic district, so we need to make sure the fan plant fits in with the aesthetic of the neighborhood. Community Board 2 has put forward designs that would weave this building into the fabric of the Village. The M.T.A. should take another look at those plans. It’s pretty confounding that they went ahead with the current designs despite very reasonable objections from the community.” The design can’t be sent back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the M.T.A., as a state agency, doesn’t have to answer to the city agency.
