An offer we didn’t refuse
A big guy from the neighborhood with a gravelly voice that sounded like it was straight from “The Sopranos” gave us a call this week and asked us to do him a favor.
Even though everything turned out to be exactly as it seemed, we weren’t too scared because the call was from Steve Schirripa, the actor and Battery Park City resident most famous for playing Tony Soprano’s brother-in-law, Bobby Baccalieri.
Schirripa, who has lived at the north and now the south end of the nabe for over a decade, used to do fundraisers for P.S. and I.S. 289 where his children attended, even getting co-stars Michael Imperioli, Edie Falco and Steve Buscemi to play in a celebrity softball game.
And he loves B.P.C. as much as Bobby loved his first wife’s lasagna.
“It’s like the suburbs of Manhattan,” he told us. “You pay a price for it, but it’s getting better all the time. People are stunned when they come down here.”
Speaking of lasagna, Schirripa wanted to tell us about his new Uncle Steve’s tomato sauce, which he will be promoting at Battery Place Market, 77 Battery Place, Wed., July 23 from 4 – 7 p.m.
“It’s my mom’s recipe, but we made it better,” he said of the organic, vegan, gluten-free and yes even kosher adjustments. “She passed away last year so I don’t know if she’d agree….
“I don’t want to sound like a pitchman even though that’s what I am, but the sauce is really good.”
As for “The Sopranos”, Schirripa told us he still gets asked about the series finale all the time. He thinks the meaning is simple.
“My personal opinion is nothing happened. What you saw is what you got,” he said. “Tony Soprano goes on living in New Jersey.”
The Cuomo Club?
Some Downtown politcos long in the tooth or up on local history perhaps noticed the generational shift in Village politics.
The more conservative (it’s all relative in Lower Manhattan) Village Reform Democratic Club formed 30 years ago as a vehicle to endorse Ed Koch for governor over Mario Cuomo, who got the nod from Koch’s old club, Village Independent Democrats.
More recently, as in the last few weeks, V.R.D.C. has come around to the Cuomo family, endorsing Mario’s boy, better known as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but V.I.D. had none of it going with Zephyr Teachout over the younger Cuomo.
Seaport Noise
There’s been a lot of noise about South Street Seaport development plans, but there’s also been some about actual noise as well.
Howard Hughes Corp., the Seaport mall operator and developer, moved its stage this year in deference to Southbridge Towers residents who had been complaining in years past, but the move did not work.
The firm received a good number of complaints this year about recent concerts.
“We thought we had a handle on it as a solution by putting the stage near Water St.— we thought good, problem solved,” Phillip St. Pierre, the Seaport’s general manager, told a Community Board 1 committee this week. “As it turns out, there was still a problem so we’re working on establishing levels that everyone can live with.”
“I couldn’t even hear my own TV and I’m down on Pearl St.,” Southbridge resident Una Perkins told St. Pierre.
There was also a little noise about literal development noise. The committee was concerned about how long Hughes would be driving piles at Pier 17, which it plans to begin reconstructing in October.
The firm’s Chris Curry didn’t have any answers, but neighbors were mildly reassured by the fact that no one at the meeting had noticed the test pile driving that’s been going on lately.
