Photo by Tequila Minsky
Couldn’t be saved: Since the Lenox Health Greenwich Village stand-alone emergency department on W. 12th St. is not a trauma center, some readers may have wondered why Idrissa Camara, the security guard who was shot at 201 Varick St. on Thurs., Aug. 20, was brought there, as opposed to, for example, Bellevue Hospital. Camara, 53, was pronounced dead at the Village E.D. Providing an explanation, Alex Hellinger, the new health hub’s executive director, told us: “EMS protocols require major-trauma patients to be taken to the closest trauma center. However, if a patient is deemed too unstable to survive the trip from the scene to a trauma center, then EMS protocols are that they go to the nearest E.D. for stabilization. CPR was performed on the patient en route to Lenox Health, but he was unresponsive. The staff at Lenox Health continued to perform standard resuscitation procedures in an attempt to stabilize and revive him. The patient received the same standard resuscitation measures that are used in all emergency rooms. However, due to the severity of his injury, all attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. The gunshot wound was to the head, and all appropriate protocols were followed.”
Congrats! Joseph Simonetti, the new commanding officer of the Village’s Sixth Precinct, was promoted on Monday from captain to inspector. He took over at the precinct in late June.
She’s no boob! There’s a reason many voters — well, many, relatively speaking, for a district leader race — are gravitating toward Terri Cude. For one thing, she definitely thinks outside the box. For example, after hearing that Mayor Bill de Blasio was mulling designating the Times Square plazas as parks, in order to prohibit commercial activity on them — i.e. the desnudas — Cude had a flash of inspiration: Since the state’s high court refused to recognize the open-space strips along Mercer St. and LaGuardia Place as parkland, then maybe a few desnudas doing what they do there might change that perception. “I actually was ready to hire some of them for an hour or two and take their picture and send it to the Post and say, ‘We are parks,’ ” Cude told us. “I actually didn’t do it, though I was ready to.”
Oh please, Obama: City Comptroller Scott Stringer recently wrote to President Barack Obama calling on him to designate Christopher Park, outside of the Stonewall Inn, as a national monument. Stringer has a long history of supporting L.G.B.T. rights. In 2010, he got hitched in Connecticut to protest New York’s lack of same-sex marriage. “As the birthplace of a historic fight for freedom, Stonewall is already a rallying point for the community,” Stringer said, “and once it is elevated to the status of national monument, it will also serve as a beacon of hope for all those engaged in the fight for equality.”
Brave new world: Troy Masters, a founder of Gay City News and its predecessor, LGNY, recently left the publication to start a biweekly paper in Los Angeles. Gay City is a sister paper of The Villager and East Villager. Masters’s new paper, The Pride L.A., will be part of Mirror Media Group, the publisher of the Santa Monica Mirror and five other community publications focused on West L.A. neighborhoods. Surprisingly, L.A. currently has no gay paper, and Masters has always been a pioneer. The launch is planned for October. We wish Troy well.
Pier 40 moves: The Real Deal recently reported that Westbrook Partners paid more than $200 million to take a majority stake in the 1.1.-million-square-foot St. John’s Building, at Houston and West Sts., in a deal that values the property at $650 million. Westbrook bought out its partner, Fortress Investment Group, at the four-story building, which sits across from Pier 40. Atlas Capital Group still owns a minority stake in the property. According to the Real Deal, the site has an additional 280,000 square feet of unused development rights. And, as previously reported, the St. John’s owners last year were in talks with the Hudson River Park Trust to buy $100 million worth of air rights — or 250,000 square feet — from the run-down sports pier. The owners were considering a condo project with 450,000 square feet of condo space and 100,000 square feet of retail, according to handwritten notes from a meeting between the owners and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Around 110,000 square feet of the project was being proposed as affordable housing for seniors. Asked his thoughts on the latest report, Tobi Bergman, chairperson of Community Board 2, said Fortress selling its share seems to indicate that there’s some progress on the mammoth project. Under the park’s new air-rights legislation, the money paid to the park for Pier 40’s surplus development rights would be funneled back into the pier for its repair.
Green scene: The Jefferson Market Garden will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a fundraiser on Wed., Sept. 9, at The Lion restaurant, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Barry Benepe, whose vision gave New York City the Greemarkets, and his son, Adrian Benepe, the former commissioner of the city’s Parks Department, will be honored. Bette Midler, who is committed to the greening of New York City, is the evening’s honorary chairperson. For tickets to attend or to contribute, email Jmg.40yrbenefit@gmail.com or call 212-242-2594.
