The Buzz

EDITORIAL

Governor can’t ignore Pier 40
When Eliot Spitzer became governor five months ago, he took responsibility for about 735 public authorities in addition to all of the state agencies directly under his control. No governor could put his or her stamp on 735 so quickly — authorities were originally designed to shield decision makers from parts of the government and the public — but Spitzer should move the Hudson River Park Trust to the top of his priority list.


NOTEBOOK
Leeches and the Mississippi
By Andrei Codrescu
I must confess here that there was something hypnotic about the whole thing and that if I didn’t have as little sense as I do, I might be tempted to lie in a vat of leeches and let them do their thing.

Funny
By Andrei Codrescu
For something to be funny in my book, it has to be innocent and optimistic, not powerful and stupid.

What is left? A book that I can never stop reading
By JERRY TALLMER
There are certain lines of poetry or prose that stick in your head through the whole lifetime since you first came upon them — or they upon you. One is a young woman named Holly saying to her husband: “Then you have to go,” meaning you have to go see Bruce if he’s in the hospital somewhere and needs you.

Scene

Open House

IN PICTURES

If only an opposable thumb

Youth Pride

Condo-hotel site gets all Trumped up

ON THE RECORD
Cartoonist makes mark with biting political satire
By Rebecca Cathcart
If you’ve seen Chelsea Now, you’ve likely seen the irascible cartoons of Mikhaela Reid.

MIkhaela Reid

HEALTHY NOW
Outdoor workouts for summertime
By Greg Rothman, M.S. P.T.
I just got back from an early morning run on the gorgeous beach at Fire Island. As I ran, I passed a handful of other runners who, I’m guessing, were having a similar experience as me.
Volume 1, Number 38 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | June 8 - 15, 2007

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Lisa Vives, executive director of Global Information Network, a Chelsea-based independent distributor of news from Africa and the developing world, in her office on West 29th Street earlier this week

Independent news distributor in Chelsea makes a splash on the global stage
By Natalie Huet
On the evening of May 24, a group of seven Mauritanian exiles living in New York City held a press conference in Chelsea, announcing that they had filed a lawsuit accusing their former President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya of torture and crimes against humanity.

NYCHA unleashes firestorm along with its budget
By Chris Lombardi
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) recently unveiled a budget shortfall that is leaving tenants and housing advocates reeling.

Park needs green (cash), says Hudson Park’s prez
By Josh Rogers
The Hudson River Park is like a business and, in order to keep it running, Pier 40 must generate more money, the park’s president said last week.

Parishioners keep fighting as church stays in limbo
By Lindsay Beyerstein
In mid-January, Cardinal Egan of the Archdiocese of New York named the Church of St. Vincent de Paul as one of several to be closed or amalgamated with nearby parishes, yet as the Archdiocese ponders a date for doing so, an association of congregants is continuing the fight to sway the Cardinal to save a rare francophone church in the heart of Chelsea.

NEWS
Angry buzz grows about illegal heliport in Hudson River Park
By Albert Amateau
Helicopters have been roaring in and out of the pad on the Hudson River at 30th St., flying sightseers over the harbor and well-heeled travelers to airports and regional destinations for the past 50 years, with the city’s blessing.

C.B. 4 to Seminary: Ninth Ave. building still too glassy
By Albert Amateau
Community Board 4 on Wednesday reaffirmed its response to the new plans for the General Theological Seminary’s proposed mixed-use seven-story building for Ninth Ave. and for a smaller academic building on 20th St. in the seminary’s Chelsea Sq. campus.

Mayor, Quinn say Village must get transfer station
By Albert Amateau
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and environmental activists from Williamsburg and the South Bronx came down to the Gansevoort Peninsula along with Department of Sanitation officials and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on a hot Thursday afternoon last week to advocate for the proposed marine transfer station on the peninsula.

Lack of middle schools irks Chelsea parents
By Chris Lombardi
When entertainment attorney Howard Leib and his family moved to Chelsea in 2003, they assumed that in such a thriving neighborhood, there would be at least one middle school for their son Josh.

Little League barges nixed in revised Pier 40 plan
By Lincoln Anderson
Responding to community complaints that its Pier 40 redevelopment plan would close the W. Houston St. pier’s sports fields for up to 18 months, The Related Companies has retooled its proposal so that the fields would remain open throughout the construction.
Arts & Entertainment
A countrified Cinderella cleans up well
By Scott Harrah
There is just one reason why audiences should see this revival of the 1963 musical based on N. Richard Nash’s “The Rainmaker,” with songs by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones (the duo that brought us the timeless classic “The Fantasticks”).

A design store (in theory) opens (not really) in Chelsea
By Stephanie Murg
According to retailing’s most famous maxim, the customer is always right — that is, unless the store is Wrong. The Wrong Store opened on May 19, smack dab in the middle of the Chelsea art scene (259 Tenth Ave. near W. 25th St.).

A Chelsea arts festival for the young at heart
By Sandra Larriva
The members of Penn South’s Program for Seniors will join forces this weekend to bring Art Launch VI, a multimedia intergenerational arts festival, to the Chelsea community. Now in its sixth year, the event will open on Friday with a multi-media exhibition and several live performances, and continue on Saturday with workshops, a poetry compilation, a dance performance, and more.

Koch on Film
By Ed Koch.
“Steel City” (-) When I left the theater, I asked AS what he thought of the movie. He said, “It would be okay for TV.” I agree. We expect a lot less of television programs than we do of films that now cost $11.00 to see.
“I Have Never Forgotten You:  The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal” (+) This documentary on the life of Simon Wiesenthal, a wonderful man whom I have admired all of my adult life, is extremely well done and worth your presence. 

Finding the common thread of heroism
By Jerry Tallmer
A year ago, when he was burning up the Off-Broadway boards as a no-nonsense, by-the-book Marine colonel with an extramarital Achilles heel in John Patrick Shanley’s “Defiance,” Stephen Lang had said that no, he hadn’t met any of the eight men he would next be portraying — eight recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor — in his incoming “Beyond Glory,” and wouldn’t care to.

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