APPLE-DEE APP HOOKERS: A few years back, we heard that many of the transgender sex workers who used to troll the Meat Market — and the Village streets just south of it — had gone online to meet johns, since there was less risk of arrest. Now we hear they’re going online, specifically — namely, at the Apple Store, at 14th St. and Ninth Ave. “They come in all dressed up and use the A/C and the free Wi-Fi, too. They check their status [on Facebook],” an employee told us. “They’re pretty recognizable because they’re the worst dressed — I mean, most scantily clad.”

LITTLE LEAGUE SEXUAL SECURITY? Meanwhile, in related raunch (sort of), we see that a Department of Buildings permit was recently posted on the door of the former West World, at the corner of Clarkson and West Sts., allowing its conversion from “adult bookstore” to “adult eating and drinking” establishment. In other words, it looks like plans for Platinum, a new Scores-like “gentlemen’s club” — i.e., topless joint — are indeed underway. This past October, Thomas Wolfe, the club’s operator, had assured The Villager that his bouncers and exterior lighting would only make the street safer for Little Leaguers and youth soccer players traipsing by on their way to and from Pier 40.

YOU DA MAN! Congratulations to Jefferson Siegel, who won Best Feature Photo at the New York Press Club’s 2013 journalism awards on Monday night. His winning shot was of six alleged sex traffickers all handcuffed together, sitting on a bench outside a courtroom, with all but one of them doing their best to hide their faces from the camera.

YO! WORD FROM THE STREET: Christopher St.’s Jessica Berk tells us she recently spotted Brooke Shields, with her dog and husband in tow, rushing away from a very tall paparazzo and toward the safety of her S.U.V. across the street. “I called out to her, ‘Does this happen to you all the time?’” Berk said. “And she made a hand gesture and said, ‘Unfortunately, yeah.’ ” Also, Berk reports, “Everyone, everywhere is talking about Hugh Jackman.” Basically, the Aussie actor is all the rage in the nabe and everyone loves him, she said.

DIE YUPPIE SCUM! The Shadow’s Chris Flash is psyched about the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots in the first week in August. He said the plan music-wise is to bring back the original bands from that era who used to radically rock the park’s erstwhile band shell. In addition, this year will see an effort to educate people about the meaning of the riots and the resistance. There will be movie nights and panels with local squatters, activists and the civil rights attorneys who defended them. Flash is hoping Norman Siegel will be a panelist. They’re still working on venues, and he said he’d love if one was the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, a.k.a. MORUS.

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED? So, will it be a Duane Reade or a CVS? We hear the ground-floor commercial tenant at 482 Greenwich St., Ben Shaoul’s new residential building on the late artist Armand’s lot at the corner of Greenwich and Canal Sts. (right across the street from The Villager’s offices), could well be pharmaceutical in nature. “It won’t be a pizza place or a Subway,” we’re told by a source. “A bid was put in for a small pharmacy.”

TAPE ME AT WOUNDED KNEE: Continuing in the “medical Hudson Square” vein, Sol Rosenblatt, 83, a Hudson Square resident (actually, he lives right above The Villager’s offices), happily reports that the F.D.A. has finally cleared his new wound-healing invention, Iodofoam, which releases iodine in a controlled manner. It’s already been favorably written up in the Key West Citizen. The jingle goes, “I oughta used Iodofoam.” Just kidding. … Seriously, earlier in his career, Rosenblatt was part of the medical team for the Apollo missions, where he became concerned about bringing Earth’s germs to the moon. He also invented Merocel, an antimicrobial alternative to gauze, hoping it could help treat seriously injured soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ULTIMATE CORN-DOG CONFLICT: We bumped into activist Rob Hollander in Tompkins Square Park early Sunday evening, who told us the No 7-Eleven coalition is gearing up for a major “picket-rally” against the new double-decker 7-Eleven slated for 23rd St. at Fifth Ave. opposite the iconic Flatiron Building. Hollander tells us this particular fast-food franchise will even have seats for customers, a troubling trend. The anti-chain coalition is finding common cause with the occupation and protest in Gezi in Istanbul, which they note, started over opposition to a shopping mall. And they’re winning on Avenue A, they say. In a press release the Slurpee-savaging alliance trumpets, “7-Eleven Corp. has delayed its 11th St. and A store opening from May 15 to Nov. 15. There’s still no franchisee, their grocery/beer license application expired last month and the contractor no longer says he’s constructing a 7-Eleven; it’s just a generic box, he says. We won’t know for sure that we’ve won until 7-Eleven takes the site off its Web site as an available store, but it looks good for us. No doubt the corporation wants to keep a neighborhood-friendly image and doesn’t want any bad press.”

SLOW ZONE ON FAST TRACK, HE HOPES: Community Board 3’s Chad Marlow tells us that the application for a car speed-controlling East Village Slow Zone has been filed with the city’s Department of Transportation. He was looking to see what other neighborhoods also filed for the initiative and noticed that the application for a Cooper Park Slow Zone in Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 seemed to lift language from his recent talking point on the subject in The Villager. Compare this line from the Brooklyn application, “These especially benefit children, seniors and physically disabled persons, for whom poorly behaved, speeding drivers present the greatest danger,” to Marlow’s original, “The improvements will be of particular benefit to children, senior citizens and certain physically challenged persons for whom speeding traffic presents the greatest danger.” Marlow told us, “Seems people are reading The Villager in Brooklyn — and are not above copying other people’s work, with minor covering efforts! They better not beat out my application!”

A PEW TO A KILL? Preservationist Andrew Berman reports that developer Douglas Steiner apparently is beginning to remove objects, such as pews and windows, from the Mary Help of Christians Church and Rectory, at 12th St. and Avenue A. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation director notes, “This is probably a precursor to demolition.” Berman and fellow preservationists have pleaded with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and Department of Buildings to commission a full archaeological review of the site, since it once was home to a large Catholic cemetery. However, he told us, “It appears that the city is not requiring any sort of archeological study before digging might begin to determine if there are any bodies underneath which that might be disturbed.”

COUNCIL PRIMARY TO OPTIMUS PRIME? One reaction to the recent negative article in the Post’s Page Six about Jenifer Rajkumar seems to be proving the adage that any publicity is good publicity. Page Six pummeled the City Council candidate, noting, for one, that her W-Spin nonprofit organization, intended to help young women around the world achieve leadership positions, never got off the ground. We hear that the sight of Rajkumar’s color photo in Page Six caused a casting agency to e-mail her an offer for a part in the next “Transformers” movie, specifically for a “gorgeous exotic female.” More intent on trying to unseat Margaret Chin than in becoming the next Megan Fox, Rajkumar turned the offer down. What did she think of the offer, and has she ever considered acting? we asked her. “I thought it was hilarious,” she told us. “No, I’m too much of a nerd at heart for movies.”

DON’T PUSH HER! Meanwhile, Mary Johnson, a former Community Board 2 member, reported that she got a push-poll call last week from the West Coast for Margaret Chin. “I received a telephone call…from a California number asking if I would answer some questions regarding candidates for the upcoming New York City elections,” Johnson said. “I agreed. The lady read off the names of candidates for each office and asked me to select the name of the candidate I was most likely to vote for…or to say ‘not sure yet.’ Then, abruptly, she homed in on Margaret Chin and her challenger, Jenifer Rajkumar… . I was asked to listen to a lot of praise and many embellished accomplishments of Margaret Chin during her almost three years as Councilmember for District 1. On completion of this recitation I was asked, ‘After hearing about all Margaret Chin has done for her constituents, has it affected how you will vote?’  Following that, the woman went on to tell me that Jenifer Rajkumar had no political experience, has lied about her law firm experience and did not divulge that she operates a not-for-profit organization. Next question, ‘Now that you have heard about Jenifer Rajkumar, has it affected how you will vote?’ Now I know what is meant by ‘push polls,’” Johnson said. “To me, this seems totally unethical and an unnecessary tactic. I wonder who else was polled? I haven’t heard of anyone else getting these calls.” Johnson said she kept the phone number.

NEVER MIND THE BURNING CARS…: We know the Hudson River Park Trust is working hard to restore the power in the park’s Village section, but they’re not quite there yet. “The electrician is still troubleshooting,” the Trust’s spokesperson told us. However, we were relieved (well, pun intended, we guess) to hear him say, “All bathrooms opened this weekend, except for Pier 96 [at W. 56th St.]” Apparently several parked cars exploding into flames — what?! — inside the Pier 40 garage last Friday was not connected to the park’s post-Sandy electrical woes. The Fire Department was still conducting an investigation report of the incident. And, fortunately, we’re told, the fire that burned that cars didn’t further damage the park’s electrical infrastructure…and the bathrooms are still working.

WITKOFF PROJECT FALL: Speaking of the Witkoff project, Jean-Louis Bourgeois, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Charles St. luxury development, called us on Tuesday to report a construction accident at the site. He said he witnessed a slew of police cars and emergency vehicles responding to the scene. A police spokesperson later confirmed that a worker at the site, a male in his 50s, had fallen about 25 feet and suffered broken bones and been removed to Bellevue Hospital, and was “not likely to die.” Alper said he and Witkoff visited the man in the hospital on Wednesday, and that he has a broken leg but is doing O.K. “It was a freak accident,” said Alper. “It was his negligence. It was a misstep — he admitted that.” Told that Bourgeois is now saying the project is unsafe and should be shut down on safety grounds, Alper said, “That’s the furthest thing from the truth,” adding, “I wouldn’t be surprised that’s coming out of his mouth.”

Photo by Tequila Minsky John Liu at last month’s New York City Gardens Coalition candidates forum at The Cooper Union.

LIU RISES AS THE ‘ANTI-QUINN’: In a shocker, that has some folks scratching their heads, Comptroller John Liu recently won the endorsement for mayor from both the Village Independent Democrats club and the Coalition for a District Alternative. At V.I.D., a West Side club, there was a runoff between Liu and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. On the first ballot, Liu got 32 votes to Quinn’s 31, while Public Advocate Bill de Blasio got only 9 votes and former Comptroller Bill Thompson just 5. Quinn picked up no votes in the runoff, with Liu going on to beat her, 41 to 31. Of course, the club voted before former Congressmember Anthony Weiner jumped into the race this week, and one can only speculate how much support the sexting scandal-scarred candidate would have garnered. Among borough president candidates, former Community Board 1 Chairperson Julie Menin romped, with 48 votes, while Councilmember Jessica Lappin, Gale Brewer and Robert Jackson netted 20, 6 and 2 votes, respectively. In their vote for public advocate, the V.I.D.’ers went for state Senator Dan Squadron, giving him 44 votes, to 27 for Councilmember Letitia James, 3 for Reshma Saujani and 1 for Cathy Guerriero. The leadership of the club, including District Leaders Jonathan Geballe and Keen Berger, were firmly behind Quinn. “What’s shocking to me is that de Blasio is not getting any traction,” said V.I.D. President Tony Hoffmann. “I cannot explain why Liu is getting traction as the ‘anti-Quinn.’ How much scandal can there be in a campaign before it touches a candidate? I don’t have an answer for that. Two low-level people being convicted of campaign fraud — but if it’s more it would be very difficult.” Many consider Liu the most progressive candidate in the field. Hoffman said the club was true to its name. “‘Independent’ is the big word in Village Independent Democrats,” he noted. “The leadership went with Quinn, but the membership went for Liu.” As for borough president, state Senator Brad Hoylman supported Lappin, while Assemblymember Deborah Glick backed Menin. “I think a lot of it was geographic,” Hoffman said of the B.P. vote. “Jessica is from the Upper East Side. Julie is more focused on the Downtown community that we consider ourselves a part of.” Meanwhile, over at CoDA on the East Side, Liu convincingly beat de Blasio in a runoff, 23 to 12. On the first ballot, Quinn received only 7 votes, and Thompson just 1. Again, voting for Weiner wasn’t an option because he hadn’t announced yet. CoDA backed James for advocate, with 31 votes, to 10 for Squadron. But they had no endorsement for borough president, with Brewer edging out Jackson in a runoff, 18 to 17, which didn’t reach CoDA’s required 60 percent margin for victory. In another stunner, CoDA did not endorse Councilmember Margaret Chin for re-election in the First District. In the first round of voting, Chin won 19 votes, to District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar’s 9, and 12 for “no endorsement.” On the second ballot, in a runoff between Chin and “no endorsement,” Chin still had 19 votes and “no endorsement” bumped up to 14. In short, Chin didn’t get enough to win the club’s nod. When she challenged then-incumbent Alan Gerson four years ago, CoDA was just about the only political club that endorsed Chin. Meanwhile, CoDA executive board member Chad Marlow accused Liu of packing the club with new members. But Ayo Harrington, CoDA co-president, told us that a quick check of the club’s membership list didn’t bear that out, with only one new member being a strong Liu supporter. Most of the recent sign-ups, she said, are actually “lapsed CoDA members, well-known names.” As for the club’s support for James, who is African-American, for advocate, State Committeeman Michael Farrin said, “We like Daniel, but we like him as a senator — and we’re also interested in a diverse ticket reflecting a majority minority city. It’s good to have an elected official at the citywide level who’s representative of the city. Diversity was the tie-breaker between two very good candidates.” Farrin is a big Chin supporter personally, though conceded, “She wasn’t great on the N.Y.U. stuff — but she was great on Seward Park [SPURA].” As for borough president, Harrington said of Menin, “She’s likable. She seems smart. She’s a tough cookie.” But she added that club members spoke critically of Menin’s having “a 25,000-square-foot apartment and a multimillionaire real estate developer as a husband.” Harrington admitted, however, she doesn’t really know if Menin’s place is actually that big. “The idea is people got the idea, you know — she’s privileged,” Harrington said. Plus, she added, versus Jackson and Brewer, Menin “just pales in comparison.” For his part, Farrin is a strong backer of Menin, who recently picked up impressive support in Northern Manhattan, as well. Will anybody be re-voting for mayor now that Weiner has entered the race, and how would he have done if he had been in the running before? V.I.D.’s Hoffmann said, “We have gone through our endorsement process. There will not be a revote. I have no idea how Liu would have fared if Weiner was in the race. Given that I didn’t predict that Liu would win in the first place, I will not venture a guess how Weiner would have affected the outcome.”

VACATING THE VOICE: The talent purge / exodus at the Village Voice continues to snowball. Just after reading that Michael Musto and other top writers were getting canned, we bumped into reporter Nick Pinto Monday on Eighth St. at the rally against the surge in anti-gay hate crimes, including Mark Carson’s murder. It turns out Pinto is also bailing from the Voice. “Actually, I just gave notice earlier today,” he told us. P.S., as of deadline, we hadn’t even seen The Voice distributed in its news boxes this week — but it eventually did get distributed, about two days late.

ROCK THE MAYO! One doesn’t usually associate Whole Foods with rock ’n’ roll, but that was the explanation for the couple of slinky-looking, long-haired guys walking around Hudson Square in black jeans and no shirts on Wednesday afternoon. Turns out they were shooting a print ad at the old Don Hill’s club for a W.F. product, Rockin’ Bacon Mayonnaise.

Photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

MEET THE NEW PARK CHIEF: Sarah Neilson, above, the new administrator of Washington Square Park and director of the planned Washington Square conservancy, if it can actually be called that (see below), introduced herself at the Wed., May 1, meeting of C.B. 2’s Parks and Waterfront Committee. Because the expressive-matter vendors issue, which was also on the meeting’s agenda, was expected to have copious discussion, the committee decided to put off its consideration of the so-called conservancy — also expected to be a lengthy and intense subject — until its next regularly scheduled  meeting, on June 5. Initially, we were hearing, however, that it wasn’t clear if the committee would actually take any position on the conservancy issue, as in passing a resolution for or against the idea. That clearly wouldn’t go over well with many community members. So we asked C.B. 2 Chairperson David Gruber about it, and it sounds like things are still a bit in flux. “That needs to be discussed in Executive Committee,” he told us, adding, “I’ll have to weigh in on that.” Gruber then made a quick call to Rich Caccappolo, the Parks and Waterfront Committee’s chairperson, then reported right back to us. It actually will not be a conservancy registered with the Parks Department, Gruber explained, but a “friends” group, so C.B. 2 conceivably might not feel it has to weigh in on the issue with a resolution. “Talk to Rich,” Gruber urged us. Caccappolo told us, “We may do a resolution based on what we hear, i.e. concerns and risks and fears raised that should be mitigated, pledges and promises, agendas and goals, etc. My understanding is that there will be no formal agreement, e.g. a license, between the Parks Department and this organization.”

Photo by Bob Krasner

MAGICAL MYSTERY TRICKS: A small but enchanted crowd gathered around David Blaine, above, on a quiet Tuesday night in the Village, as he was being filmed doing card tricks on MacDougal St. The world-famous magician declined to say what the footage would be used for. But he was gracious enough to stick around to pose for photos with some very happy fans.

EARLIER SUNDAY EYE-OPENER? We hear from Bob Gormley, Community Board 2 district manager, that the city is proposing changing the opening time for sidewalk cafes on Sundays to 10 a.m. Currently, sidewalk cafes legally aren’t allowed to open on Sundays before noon, due to the prohibition on serving alcohol until that hour on the traditional church-going day. Under the proposal, from what we understand from what Gormley told us, not only sidewalk cafes, but obviously, bars and restaurants, in general, would be allowed to start serving booze at 10 a.m. on Sundays. Gormley, and other representatives of several other Manhattan community boards, were down at the City Council earlier this week when the proposal was being discussed. He told us that, generally, the board reps were O.K. with allowing sidewalk cafes to start serving at 10 a.m. However, since this might mean a bit more morning noise under residents’ windows during these two added hours, Gormley advocated for cutting back the Sunday night closing time for sidewalk cafes by two hours from the currently mandated midnight. “We recognized it’s very helpful to Sunday brunch,” he said of the outdoor Bloody Mary-in-the-morning-enabling proposal. “But we asked the Council to link the 10 a.m. opening time to a 10 p.m. closing time.” David Rabin also attended the Council discussion, representing the restaurant industry.

DORIS DOES REHAB: The C.B. 2 district manager also brought us up to date on board member Doris Diether, who is rehabilitating at VillageCare, on Houston St. between Sixth Ave. and Varick St. The octogenarian activist should be out by May 16, Gormley said. Although she’s recuperating from a broken hip and broken shoulder, the biggest issue for her might be the fact that one of her vocal cords is damaged, preventing her from speaking above a loud whisper, he said. “I heard someone say it was possibly paralyzed,” he noted. “There’s a shot that can restore her voice for a few months, but it would only be temporary.”

IN THE POLE POSITION: The “Mosaic Man,” Jim Power is giving it another go, as he’s ratcheting up (yet again) his legendary “Mosaic Trail” project, this time with a little help from Indiegogo. He’s aiming to raise no small sum — $80,000 — which would pay for the renovation of half of his trail of tile-encrusted lampposts throughout the East Village. You can give $5 “and Jim will love you forever,” the site promises. For $25, you get an official Mosaic Trail sticker. For $100, you — yes, you! — can become a part of the trail, with your face on a tile, on a lamppost, on the most famous public art trail in history. And, no, it doesn’t stop there. For $250, you get a T-shirt with one of Power’s mosaic designs from the trail. For $500, you’ll get a one-of-a-kind, wearable-art, Mosaic belt buckle. For $1,000, you will receive an original 8-inch-by-8-inch mosaic artwork by Power. And — drumroll, please — finally, for $2,500 you can “Adopt a Light Pole,” with your name, business or brand featured on a lamppost along the trail. For more information, go-go online to Indiegogo at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/385985/emal/3004188 . It certainly sounds like an extremely ambitious undertaking for any mortal man. We recently visited “Mosaic Man” at The Lee supportive-housing facility on E. Houston St., and he declared to us that he is ready to completely “dominate” St. Mark’s Place like it’s never been dominated before, sprucing up his poles there. He badly needs a hip operation, though, and told us he might get it in June, so we certainly wish him well with that, as well. Apparently, the idea of a Mosaic Scooter has been scrapped. “Been a longtime coming. All of this,” said “Mosaic” helper Matt Rosen. “The efforts we’ve done over the last year or two have all been leading up to this. Basically, Jim had an audience. We just needed to curate it.”

PASSING THE (TELESCOPING) BATON:
After two years leading Greenwich Village’s Sixth Precinct, Deputy Inspector Brandon del Pozo on Wednesday moved on to work for the Police Department’s newly appointed Chief of Department, Philip Banks III. “I will be turning command of the Sixth Precinct over to Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos, a 22-year veteran who has previously commanded [Chelsea’s] 10th Precinct and P.S.A. 6, which is a command in the Housing Bureau,” del Pozo said in a message to the community. “Rest assured, you are in excellent, experienced hands and I have no doubt that you’ll welcome her into this community. I can’t overstate how much of a privilege and honor it has been to serve the Village and lead some of the best and most dedicated officers in the N.Y.P.D.,” he said, adding, “This is a truly special place, both demanding and complex, and the rewards have been commensurate. There is no doubt that I’ll look back on the time I spent here as one of the best I’ve spent on the N.Y.P.D.”
 
COMIC TIMING…OR NOT:
We were passing by Nonimperialist Bargain Books on Carmine St. on Monday and just as we were arriving, we glimpsed Jim Drougas, the shop’s owner, ushering an elderly patron into a car, and then ferrying him off. Joseph, formerly of the Yippie Cafe, who was working the register inside, told us the senior was none other than Professor Irwin Corey, 98, “The World’s Foremost Authority,” who had just stopped by to buy some books, notably the “Dylan Encyclopedia.” We noticed that the store was undergoing some major renovations, with a bookcase dividing the place down the middle. Joseph said that the eastern side will be for comic books while the western side will remain for, well…nonimperialist bargain books. In fact, as we later read on DNA.info, it turns out that the comic book side will actually be a full-fledged comedy club. If we had arrived a few minutes earlier, we’re sure Drougas would have told us that, but he was off taking Corey home.

HOW TWEET IT IS:
The Poisson Rouge fundraiser last week for Reshma Saujani’s public advocate campaign was peopled with many tech industry professionals and other young New Yorkers — primarily in their 20s to 40s — from finance to medicine and other professions. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, was the night’s highlighted Saujani supporter. Also on hand was her husband, Nihal Mehta, C.E.O. of Local Response, a social media company that “leverages the hundreds of millions of public posts across social media each day.” As part of the formal program, infomercial videos were projected. The first was a biographical piece about the 37-year-old candidate. The second video profiled Girls Who Code — a program founded by the advocate candidate — which addresses the gender gap in the tech industries by providing intensive training for young girls in computer programming skills. Unfortunately, technical difficulties diminished the impact of this interesting video. There was no mention of her previous campaign, a 2010 primary challenge to Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, in which Saujani, running as a pro-Wall Street Democrat, lost badly to the longtime incumbent. Following her graduation from Yale Law School in 2002, Saujani worked as a hedge fund lawyer. Saujani told the audience of her refugee status as a child from Uganda, having fled dictator Idi Amin, and then identifying with the hard work and struggles of immigrant families in this country. She recalled, as a minority, getting beaten up in her neighborhood. She recently worked in the office of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and also helped found the DREAM Fellowship, which gives scholarships to undocumented students. Saujani repeatedly emphasized her “platform,” of jobs, education, housing and women.

SCHOOL’S CLOSING, BY GEORGE!
East Village activist Anna Sawaryn told us she thought she’d heard at the Palm Sunday Mass last weekend (that’s when Ukrainians observe Palm Sunday) at St. George Church — but wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly — that St. George School, at E. Sixth St. and Taras Shevchenko Place, would be closing. She heard right. The school will close in June due to low enrollment, at least that’s the reason the Basilian fathers are giving. The school, from pre-K to grade 12, has 90 students. La Salle High School is using most of the building, with St. George School on the ground floor. But a source tells us La Salle will eventually likely move back to its E. Second St. building, which needed repairs, which was why La Salle relocated. “We think probably it will be taken over by N.Y.U. or Cooper Union,” the St. George School source told us of the E. Sixth St. school building. Local “Uke” parents (to use a term Ukrainians call themselves) are furious, and are burning up Facebook, condemning the church and the brothers for the closing. Next week is their Easter, when they give the school an envelope with cash. But at least one said he’s only going to put $1 in the envelope. “One parent who owns a game shop on Sixth St. is livid,” our source told us. Sawaryn said the school’s first floor could easily be converted into a Ukrainian nursing home or a residence for new Ukrainian immigrants.

PORN FREE:
Charlemagne, a swank new American-style bistro, has replaced the former porn video store at the corner of Christopher and Greenwich Sts. All the place’s interior wood is salvaged from old brownstones, and the floor is the original tile. The new bistro continues the transformation of this block of Christopher St. from sex shops and gay bars to, well…something a little more tame. Watering holes like Chi-Chiz have been replaced by a sushi place and the Path Cafe, where mellow live acoustic music can frequently be heard — always played at a very modest volume. … A bit west at Cornelia St. and Sixth Ave., the Real Deal reports that Papaya Dog, Crazy Fantasy Tattoo and sex-novelty shop Fantasy Party will get the boot from new landlord the Jackson Group, which recently purchased the retail space for $16.5 million. The Real Deal lamented that the strip’s Times Square-like “true grit” will be replaced, if Jackson Group is successful, with upscale chains like Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, Aeropostale or Under Armor. However, most neighborhood residents actually would welcome the change.

Photo by Lincoln Anderson
Heather Campbell, left, and Heather Lortie, members of the 75 Morton St. envisioning group.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | The West Village is getting a building to convert into a school at 75 Morton St. This much is known.

But, first, the big questions that need to be answered are: What grade levels and how many schools should the building include?

A group of local school parents has hired its own facilitator and held three meetings to consider what would be the best fit for the building, and for Community School District 2, as a whole. At Monday evening’s meeting of the 75 Morton Task Force, this group presented their findings thus far in a report on their “envisioning process.”

Basically, the envisioning group thinks the best use for 75 Morton St. would be as one middle school with 900 students, from grades 6 to 8. Of this number, about 90 would be special-education students.

However, School Construction Authority officials previously stated the city felt two, smaller middle schools would be the best use.

“We need middle school seats — that was the envisioning group’s consensus,” said Heather Campbell, a member of Community Board 2 who is also part of the envisioning group.

Campbell said P.S. 41, for example, is one large school, with 800 students, and functions very well. On the other hand, when a school building is divided up into two schools, she said, “You get the ‘A’ level and the ‘B’ level — it just happens.”

Also, co-locating schools in the same building poses its own challenges, she said, noting, “Sharing’s hard.”

Heather Lortie, another member of the group, said School District 2 is desperate for more space for students in the sixth to eighth grades.

“We’re already at capacity with the middle school seats we have,” she said, adding that, in particular, “The West Side needs a middle school.”

What educational slant a 75 Morton school might have isn’t yet known, and is a “next steps” issue to address a bit farther in the future. But representatives of the Whitney Museum and the Children’s Museum of the Arts spoke at Monday’s meeting, emphasizing the importance of arts education. Another local parent who is also a science teacher said not to forget about science, either.

Next, the two branches of the 75 Morton Task Force — Community Board 2 and the District 2 Community Education Council — will make their recommendations on what grade levels and how many schools the building should have. S.C.A. needs to know this information before it starts construction on 75 Morton in June.

RIDE ON! We were walking down E. Ninth St. past the old P.S. 64 Sunday afternoon when J.K. Canepa came zipping along on her bicycle. The East Village environmentalist had just come from Union Square — with a detour at the Tompkins Square rhumba circle — after tabling against T.P.P., a.k.a. the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She explained to us that this trade agreement, between the U.S. and 10 other nations, will give foreign corporations the right to sue our government when the U.S. laws block their environmentally destructive projects and toxic exports — and that the multinationals would even be able to sue for millions of dollars in future profits they claim they’ve been denied. “T.P.P. is a time bomb ticking down to the finish line in October,” Canepa warned. “It would be the last trade agreement that would ever need negotiations. The president is just trying to fast-track this through Congress, which has not been privy to the language.”

RAY’S LEASE RENEWAL CRISIS: Ray of Ray’s Candy Store, at Avenue A and Seventh St., who just turned 80, tells us his lease is up for renewal July 15, and that it’s likely his rent — now $4,100 — will double. But he can’t afford to pay that without doubling his prices, and is now wondering if, after 40 years, he’ll have to “give up the business.” While some European countries have commercial rent control, he noted, New York never will. Three years ago, the community pulled together to help Ray pay his rent through the winter, until he finally could make it through to his peak summer season, and also finally get his long-delayed Social Security, which had been snagged in bureaucratic red tape. But this lease renewal is a serious new challenge. While Jerry Leshko, the store’s former landlord, had wanted to give Ray a 99-year lease, he died about 15 or 20 years ago before he could follow through on the pledge. … Meanwhile, on the bright side, Ray’s new specialty, fried Oreos, is selling like hotcakes, and they are, mmm-mmm good!!! For a video of Ray talking about his lease, his love (Kathy D., 71 — unfortunately, unrequited, because she feels Ray is too old to marry her) and other issues, visit www.thevillager.com .

THE HOUSE THAT BOB BUILT: We hear from a New School source that the school’s student dorm atop its new University Center, at 14th St. and Fifth Ave., will be known as the Kerrey Family Residence. No, former school president Bob Kerrey will not actually be living there with his family, though the naming is to honor his fundraising prowess, which made the gigantic, ant hive-reminiscent project possible. It’s probably some consolation to Kerrey, who was recently axed as the New School’s president emeritus, and lost a $500,000-plus annual salary in the process. It turns out the school didn’t know that Kerrey was moonlighting at another post, working for an early-education organization in California. The Villager reported something along those lines a week or two prior to Kerry’s canning, after we bumped into the former Nebraska senator at a meet-and-greet for borough president candidate Jessica Lappin at the Village home of Gary Ginsberg and Susanna Aaron.

SHULAMITH IN-DEPTH: Everyone is forwarding around the just-published New Yorker article by Susan Faludi on Shulamith Firestone. The famed but troubled radical feminist was found dead, at age 67, on the floor in her E. 10th St. apartment last August, having expired a few days earlier. The Villager was, we are pretty certain, the first to break the news of Firestone’s death, thanks to a tip from her landlord, Bob Perl. (For the record, after our obituary on Firestone, Faludi did e-mail us trying to find out where Firestone’s memorial was, though ended up finding out for herself.) We tried to follow up with the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on the cause of death, but never got an answer. However, at the opening of MoRUS, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, in the East Village back in December, we were told by a local radical feminist in the know that there had been no autopsy since Firestone was Orthodox, and that Orthodox Judaism prohibits autopsies — which Faludi’s report confirmed. In addition, Faludi tellingly reveals that Firestone’s father was incredibly strict and that father and daughter frequently clashed bitterly, with the pair once grappling desperately on the stairs and the father shouting at her, “I’ll kill you!” Is it any wonder then that Firestone, in her best-selling “Dialectic of Sex,” sought to create a world where women could transcend patriarchy?

Photo by Ede Rothaus The Morton St. Triangle was in the wrong place at the wrong time when two taxis were in an accident. But luckily no people were injured.

BAD TRIANGULATION: We were sorry to hear from Ede Rothaus that the Greenstreets triangle at the intersection of Morton and Bedford Sts. and Seventh Ave. South was recently smashed up in an early-morning car accident. Rothaus, the garden’s keeper, received an award from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for spearheading the plot’s restoration. Rothaus got the police report of the incident from Detective Jimmy Alberici of the Sixth Precinct, who had in turn obtained it from Police Officer Hubert Tang, the precinct’s highway safety officer. Basically, two taxicabs with a total of five passengers collided, but luckily no one was injured. The garden, though, wasn’t so lucky.

BLOOMIN’ GREAT IDEA! New York State’s flower is a rose. (We admit we just had to Google that one.) Now Hudson River Park is asking park users and visitors to pick an official flower for the 5-mile-long waterfront park. In the running are five perennials found in the park. As seen on Page 2, the nominees are — envelope, please!!! — echinecea (coneflower), hemerocallis (daylily), coreposis (tickseed), rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan) or, last but not least, nepeta (cat mint). The Academy, or rather, park users, can vote for their favorite flower via a survey they can access on the Hudson River Park Web site, at  ww.hudsonriverpark.org/voteforofficialflower, or via the Twitter handle @HudsonRiver Park “These perennials mimic the best qualities of Hudson River Park — beautiful, vibrant and resilient. Any one of them would make a great official flower,” said Madelyn Wils, president and C.E.O. of the Hudson River Park Trust. “We’re excited for the community to weigh in and tell us which one they want to represent their park moving forward.” Voting will be open for the next two weeks with the winner to be announced on Earth Day, Mon., April 22.

“I JUST CAN’T SMILE WITHOUT BID”: As she continues her relentless drive to create a Christopher St. Partnership business improvement district, Jessica Berk reports the fledgling group recently got its first “celebrity like” — as in a “like” by a celebrity — on its Facebook page, by none other than Barry Manilow. The romantic, swoon-inducing crooner doesn’t even live in New York, but Berk is taking it. “We need a lot more support than Barry Manilow,” she said, adding, “If you really want to know, I’m waiting for calls back from David Geffen and Marc Jacobs, who I hope will do a T-shirt for us. Philip Seymour Hoffman, he lives in my building, he said, ‘Yes.’ Billy Joel supports the BID — I talked to him about it while I was walking my dog. He used to have a townhouse on Perry St. before he got divorced.” Hugh Jackman also, at some point, signed something saying he was in favor of the idea, Berk claims. Anyway, she’s planning a meeting about the proposed district, dubbed “Can Christopher St. Be Saved?” on Tues., April 9, at 7 p.m., at St. John’s Lutheran Church, at 81 Christopher St. “This is the first meeting, there are no rules for it,” she said. “We’ll see what happens.” Who knows? Maybe someday she’ll be able to say, “Looks like we maaade it!”

NOHO BACK IN THE FOLD: Thanks to Councilmember Margaret Chin, Noho has rejoined Soho in Council District 1. According to her communications director, Kelly Magee, Chin spoke to the Redistricting Commission and convinced them to reunite the adjacent enclaves, which share a joint live-work quarters zoning for artists. Jeanne Wilcke, president of Downtown Independent Democrats, said their lobbying the councilmember on the issue paid off. “Chin spoke to the commission — and voila! There we are,” she said. “I personally thanked Chin when I ran into her, as she immediately told me the news. As these two communities were founded together and have the same unique zoning, a future divided would have been precarious. The Noho Neighborhood Association in particular is relieved that Noho will not be divided from its sister district, Soho.” Said Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, “Truly it is said, ‘The squeaky wheel gets the oil.’ It is gratifying that the councilmember was able to preserve these two long-standing ‘communities of interest,’ basically the same neighborhood sharing a common history, demographic, architecture and zoning, simply intersected by a large thoroughfare, Houston St.”

MEATPACKING CHEDDAR: On Mon., March 18, the nonprofit Meatpacking District Improvement Association hosted its first annual fundraiser, OPEN MARKET, a shopping, dining and music extravaganza at Highline Stages. The confab featured the participation of nearly all the district’s retail, restaurant, hospitality and cultural businesses. Co-chaired by DVF’s Diane von Furstenberg  and Andrew Rosen, C.E.O. of Theory, together above, the event brought together hundreds of guests along with some of the most influential names in fashion, nightlife and real estate. All the proceeds went to M.P.I.A.’s continuing efforts to improve the neighborhood through public initiatives. Vintage Meatpacking District-style sample sale booths were hosted by DVF, Theory, Rag & Bone, Tory Burch, Helmut Lang and others. The Standard Highline, Tippler, Morimoto and Del Posto, among others, provided food and drink. A silent auction was held featuring a holiday getaway to Turks and Caicos from Ganservoort Hotel Group, JetBlue flight packages, a Rag & Bone shopping spree and more. “The Meatpacking District is New York’s epicenter of fashion, food, hospitality and nightlife and the only area where these industries converge, creating a truly unique commercial district that still continues to evolve,” said Lauren Danziger, M.P.I.A. executive director. “We are thrilled that so many of our friends gathered together to help host the first annual OPEN MARKET to support M.P.I.A.’s efforts.”

DE BLASIO BLAZING HIS OWN TRAIL: At a forum of the Democratic mayoral candidates at Baruch College on March 20 sponsored by Gay City News, The Villager’s sister publication, Bill de Blasio was the only one of the five candidates to say he supports a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City. Also, de Blasio was the only candidate to declare he backs Mayor Bloomberg’s idea of portion caps for fountain sodas and other sugary drinks. (Scoopy reported last week that de Blasio advocates portion caps.)

IRONCLAD ENDORSEMENT: City Council candidate Yetta Kurland has nailed down the support of the Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46 and also of the steely members of the McManus Midtown Democratic Club.

ANSHE ANGST: Sandy Ackerman, son of Rabbi Pesach Ackerman, called us to say that our recent article on the residential conversion plan for Anshe Mezritch Synagogue, at 415 E. Sixth St., incorrectly stated that the synagogue would be moved down to “the basement.” In fact, this area is “just two steps down” and is essentially the ground floor, he stressed. Also, we hear there is a bit of controversy about the apparent plan for the Mezritch congregation to use the community room at Village View for their Shabbos services. We’re told that the Village View board voted to approve this, though at least one board member — President Adam Silvera — was reportedly “so unhappy” that it was reported in The Villager, and says it actually won’t be happening. We tried reaching Silvera without success.

CORRECTION: An obituary in last week’s issue on editor/writer Gerald Barry, who died March 13 at 90, incorrectly stated that he lived at the Kateri Residence the past two years. In fact, he lived at home in the Village until Feb. 2, when he went to Beth Israel Hospital with heart failure, and then transferred to the Kateri Residence for his last two weeks. “We were especially  adamant about caring for him at home in these last few years of illness,” said his wife, Sugar Barry. Also, Sugar said, Jerry’s family asked that donations in his memory be sent to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which was important to him and was where he often did research for his books and articles.

Carolyn Maloney, right, endorsed Christine Quinn for mayor on Monday. Photo by Scoopy

Maloney for ‘Ms. Mayor’: Saying Christine Quinn will be “the first woman mayor of the greatest city in the world,” Congressmember Carolyn Maloney proudly endorsed the City Council speaker Monday at the site of a major Downtown voting bloc, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. “Anyone with brains and hard work can get the job done,” Maloney scoffed, “but we need someone who can do the impossible. She’s been the second most powerful person in New York City for seven years,” the veteran lawmaker said, “passed seven on-time budgets.” She praised Quinn’s “smarts, her dedication, her ability to work in a collaborative way. … Public safety and homeland security are the number one responsibility of the mayor, and she understands that,” Maloney said, adding, “She has promised to reappoint Ray Kelly as Police commissioner.” Quinn interjected a “Yay!” for Kelly. “She can lead on the tough issues, she can bring all the stakeholders together, she can listen to all points of view and find a solution,” Maloney continued. “She’s tough; she’s not afraid of anything or anybody.” She will be, Maloney said, “the first woman to be called Ms. Mayor of New York

City.” Quinn, in turn, praised Maloney for working hard to keep Stuy Town affordable and for “making New York City a better community for women and girls and the L.G.B.T. community.” The two pols then joined a contingent of ST/PC supporters for a stroll up the First Ave. retail strip from 16th St. to 20th St. Quinn popped into Bruno Ravioli to chat up a tableful of tradesmen having a bite and sound them out on their views on the economic situation, then re-emerged onto the sidewalk to compliment a mom and her two young kids on their matching Nepal-style earflap hats. She doled out a slew of kisses and hugs and petted Callie, J.C. Myska’s dog. Myska said he’s voting for Quinn because he’s going to enroll in the Police Academy and he supports keeping on Kelly as top cop. Along the route, we asked Quinn if she backs the mayor’s “portion ban” idea, under which fountain sodas at restaurants, movie theaters, delis, etc. could not be served in cups more than 16 ounces in size, and if she’d continue to push for the regulation and implement it, if elected. “I am not a supporter of the ‘soda ban,’ ” she told us. While Quinn said she thinks “the mayor’s done a lot on health,” she feels the portion ban for soft drinks is different than the smoking ban, for example, since drinking a sugar-saturated soda doesn’t impact other people. Maloney interjected, “I would say that people don’t care about the size of their drinks. They care about jobs — and that’s what she’ll focus on.” Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, another mayoral candidate, however, does strongly support the portion ban. He appeared with Mayor Bloomberg the week before at Lucky’s Cafe, at 34th St. and First Ave., the day after Judge Milton Tingling struck down the implementation of the new soda-size limits, which Tingling trashed as “arbitrary and capricious.” “I hope the city wins the appeal, for the good of our children,” de Blasio said. Borough President Scott Stringer, who is running for city comptroller, also stood with the mayor at Lucky’s in support of the portion cap. “To ignore this is giving in to the soda cartel,” he declared.

Declaring for district leader: Jonathan Geballe and Keen Berger last Thursday announced the start of their campaign for male and female Democratic district leader for the 66th Assembly District, Part A. Geballe is running for his first full term after having been recently elected to fill the seat left by Brad Hoylman upon Hoylman’s being elected state Senator to fill the seat of Tom Duane, who retired from the Senate. “Jonathan has been at the forefront of the battle for election protection and voters’ rights,” said Berger, who has been D.L. nine years. “He has stood with the Village on landmark preservation and our battle to stop hydrofracking and protect our city and state’s water supply. I am thrilled to have a partner who will fight for the concerns of our community.” Said Geballe, “It has always been my wish to preserve the Village’s storied past while growing its vitality for the future. The streets of the Village, East and West, tell us its history, but the Village is always foremost about its people, from the youngest infants to our seniors. Filling Brad’s shoes is a challenge I’m ready for. I’m eager to advance the causes he has championed in areas like securing a new middle school at 75 Morton St. and designating the remainder of the South Village as a historic district.” Now we’re waiting for State Committeeman Arthur Schwartz’s announcement that’s he’s running to reclaim the district leader seat he grudgingly gave up six years ago after local pols pushed him out of the way so Hoylman could start his political rise. Tony Hoffman, president of Village Independent Democrats, Geballe and Berger’s home club, admitted to us that, “It’s going to be a tough race.”