Volume 74, Number 27 | November 03 – 09, 2004
Scoopy’s notebook
Later, Nader: According to a Ralph Nader staffer who stopped by last week to say thanks for the placement of Nader’s ad in last week’s issue, this was the last presidential election campaign for the consumer advocate turned third-party crusader. In the future, Nader, 70, will devote himself to ballot access reform, the staffer said.
Correction: An article in last week’s Villager reported that Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, was among a group that heckled Mayor Bloomberg at Union Sq. Park on Mon., Oct. 25, as the mayor announced the city’s commitment of $8 million toward the renovation of the north end of Union Sq. park and its northern plaza. Croft says he only “ate his apple” that he had bought at the Greenmarket and listened quietly and never heckled or even witnessed the alleged heckling. The reporter apologizes to Croft — and hopes the apple was delicious.
RID VS. FIERCE! Jessica Berk of Residents in Distress called to inform us that she plans to sue FIERCE!, the transgender-youth activist group. Apparently upset over something FIERCE! members may have said at their recent march along Christopher St., the always litigious anti-crime activist said she plans to sue for “defamation, slander, libel, character assassination and all that good stuff.” We’re not going to say anything more about it — or she may sue us!
Movin’ on up: Gary Parker is the new district manager of Community Board 5, covering mid-Manhattan from Union Sq. to Park Ave. S. Parker previously worked for Assemblymember Deborah Glick and in the New York University government and community relations department.
High Line headlines: Villager headlines from past articles and editorials may very well have been used in a segment of “Jane’s New York” on the High Line on Channel 4 last weekend. Friends of the High Line screened the program at Freight, 410 W. 16th St., in the Meat Market. The show had come down to our office to Xerox the headlines. We actually missed the show, which will be rebroadcast Nov. 13, at 1 p.m.
key penn vote: Penn South shareholders elected five members of the co-op’s 15-member board of directors on Sun., Oct. 31, including four incumbents. On Nov. 2 the new board chose Irma Lobell as the new president of the co-op, replacing Robert Silverstein, whose term as a board member expired Oct. 31 and who declined to run again. Lobell is a Penn South resident for more than 30 years and longtime board member. Seven candidates in the Oct. 31 election include four members of the dominant Associated Concerned Co-operators slate, two independents and one member of Voices of Penn South, the main organized opposition to A.C.C. Elected to the board were: Walter Mankoff, with 1,065 votes, an incumbent and A.C.C. member who has served on the co-op board since 1980, currently is treasurer of the board; Linda Lowenstein, with 1,002 votes, an incumbent and A.C.C. member, won her second term on the board; Miriam Zwerin, with 970 votes, an incumbent and A.C.C. member, has been on the board since she was appointed in February to complete the vacated term of Karen Smith; Gena Feist, with 960 votes, an incumbent and an independent, won her third term on the board; Fran Kaufman, with 935 votes, an A.C.C. member, won her first term on the board running for the seat vacated by Robert Silverstein. Not elected were Vera Feingold, a Voices of Penn South member who got 660 votes, and Joan Starr, an independent with 561 votes.
HALL OF FAMER: West Villager Joan Stoliar, who died four years ago, wore many hats: book designer, environmentalist, educational innovator, goodwill ambassador for visiting dignitaries during the Koch administration and accomplished fly fisher. So it was fitting that she was recently inducted into the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame by the prestigious Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum in Livingston Manor, N.Y. About 100 people attended the event at which Joan Stoliar was honored with an inscribed bronze plaque, and her portrait was hung in the museum. Her husband, Arthur, also a fishing maven, and a former chairperson of Community Board 2, was touched by the honor.
