washington-square

The Community Board 2 Parks and Waterfront Committee will not be discussing the proposed Washington Square Park Conservancy at its meeting this Wed., May 1. (See agenda below, with change highlighted in bold.) The committee felt the meeting’s agenda is too crowded with other items that will require extensive discussion — notably the Parks Department’s regulations on expressive matter vendors, including performers — so the decision was made to lay over the full discussion of the conservancy to a separate meeting, date to be assigned.

PARKS/WATERFRONT Richard Caccappolo, Chair

Wed., 5/1 @ 6:30 PM-Grace Church School, 86  Fourth Ave. and 11^th St., Tuttle Hall

1. Parks Dept presentation of proposed art exhibit for Jackson Square.
2. DeSalvio Playground project: Update on fundraising to support the increased cost estimates for desired scope changes.
3. Other project status updates:  Including renovation of JJ Walker field and follow-on discussion regarding furniture in 6th Ave parks.
4. *Status of the Water Tunnel site on Hudson St. and Clarkson St.:  Including discussion of when it might be turned over by DEP to Parks, constraints on what can be put on the site, and re-visiting results of past community scoping efforts.
5. Washington Square Park: Introduction to the new Administrator, Sarah Nielson, and discussion of park-related projects and issues including status of Phase 3 renovations and PEP officer staffing.Note: the topic of a WSP Conservancy will not be discussed at this meeting; rather it will be the main topic of a separate meeting in the near future.
6. Changes to Parks Dept rules governing expressive matter vendors: Senior Parks Dept. representatives will attend to explain the new rules and enforcement thereof.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb2/html/calendar/calendar_js.shtml

Much to the community’s dismay, the Pathmark was closed in December to make way for the new development.

Last Friday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Senator Daniel Squadron and Councilmember Margaret Chin issued a joint statement on the agreement:

“As part of our ongoing effort to ensure that our Lower East Side neighbors have access to fresh food and other essentials,” they said, “we met with the developer of the former Pathmark site at 227 Cherry St. and received a commitment that a full-service supermarket will be built as part of the project.

“This is an area that is underserved when it comes to the availability of fresh and affordable food. That is why we fought plans to close the Pathmark and have been advocating for another supermarket to replace it. Extell Development Company has assured us that a food market will be built,” the politicians said, “and we look forward to seeing it open. We are also advocating for a temporary market to open while construction is underway.”

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Alicia Elett appeared at her arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court, above, on Fri., April 26. Elett, 25, a bartender at the Bowery Hotel, was one of 16 people arrested for buying drugs from a ring that operated out of the Baruch Houses in the Lower East Side and Campos Plaza in the East Village.

Two weeks earlier, 41 people were arrested, including the drug dealers and livery car drivers who made the deliveries.

As each of the buyers appeared before Justice Edward McLaughlin, he held up photos of the dealers, saying to each buyer that the “kingpins” of the drug rings would very likely go to jail for 15 years to life.

“There are gun battles” in the Lower East Side because of drugs, McLaughlin told them. “Cocaine and its problem has been in all the newspapers.

“In the Lower East Side, two police officers were shot at because of drug gangs shooting each other in order to control the selling of drugs to idiots,”  the judge said, glaring at the buyers.

“You,” he said to each defendant, including Elett, “are a contributing factor in the Lower East Side problem.”

The 16 had made cocaine purchases totaling from $430 to $2,400. They are due back in court this month.

Jefferson Siegel

Photos by Sam Spokony

Advocates, donors and volunteers gathered in the Village on April 25 to kick off the final weeks of the campaign leading up to the 28th annual AIDS Walk NY, which will be held in Central Park on May 19. The Walk is largest AIDS-related fundraising event in the world, and last year raised more than $5.8 million for New York City-based Gay Men’s Health Crisis (G.M.H.C.) and 40 other tri-state-area AIDS service organizations.

The kickoff event, which was held at the Center for Architecture, at 536 LaGuardia Place, featured an appearance by Broadway star Nick Adams — acclaimed for his recent role in the musical “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” — pictured above, who was also cheered for his continued efforts as a volunteer and fundraiser for the AIDS Walk. Notable appearances were also made by state Senator Brad Hoylman, who began his first term representing the Village earlier this year, and Dr. Marjorie Hill, the C.E.O. of G.M.H.C., pictured together, below.

To learn more about contributing to this year’s AIDS Walk NY, visit aidswalk.net/newyork.

Photos by Q. Sakamaki

Marchers in the May Day parade on Wednesday made their way down from Union Square to City Hall. The big issue, along with of course workers’ rights, was immigrants’ rights. A Japanese group called attention to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011. Marchers condemned Arizona’s harsh “SB 1070” anti-illegal immigration act.

Photo by Lincoln Anderson Workers installed a large hunk of rock on Mercer St. north of Spring St. Tuesday morning to protect the new bike-share station recently sited there from oncoming car traffic.

Photo by Tequila Minsky This new bike-share station for 40-plus bikes on West Broadway is planted next to a strip coveted by sidewalk artists on weekends.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON  |  New York is going completely bonkers over bike-share — and the bicycles aren’t even here yet! But the bike-station docks are, and they’re sparking a million reactions — make that 8 million — from support to opposition and, in at least one case, a lawsuit.

Residents of 99 Bank St. in the Village last week filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of a 31-bike dock in front of their building, between Greenwich and Hudson Sts. The suit charges that the bike station violates the city’s own rules for placement of street furniture. But a judge rejected the 100-unit co-op’s plea for an injunction. However, early Tuesday morning, the city gave some ground — literally — removing a four-bike segment of the dock from the end closest to the building’s entrance, and setting down a big hunk of rock in its place.

The two-wheeled tumult also steered its way straight into a plan by Community Board 2 to show an informational “Streetfilms” movie on bike-share this Thurs., May 2. Initially, the film, “Bike Share: In Action There / Launching Here,” was set to screen at N.Y.U.’s Casa Italiana — which has a capacity of 100 people — on W. 12th St., with C.B. 2 and New York University as co-sponsors. A flier the community board e-mailed out announced that state Senator Brad Hoylman would give opening remarks, and that two Department of Transportation officials would lead the presentation and discussion: Kate Fillin-Yeh and Stephanie Levinsky, the director and the planner, respectively, of the city’s bike-share program.

On Monday, however, C.B. 2 sent out another e-mail announcing that due to “an outpouring of community interest,” the venue for the May 2 “bike-share discussion” (it no longer mentioned the movie) had been switched to a larger space, P.S. 41, at 116 W. 11th St., starting at 6:30 p.m. The flier also no longer mentioned the two D.O.T. bike-share officials — and there were, in fact, reports that the pedal-pushing pair had backed out of the event, fearing having to face up to the venting by opponents who planned to attend. Hoylman also was no longer listed on the revised notice.

Tuesday evening, The Villager asked Shirley Secunda, chairperson of the C.B. 2 Traffic and Transportation Committee, about reports that the D.O.T. officials would no longer be attending.

“This was David Gruber’s call,” she said, referring to the C.B. 2 chairperson. “You’re right — it’s a completely different format now, to get public feedback.”

The following day, Secunda put out an e-mail blast telling people, “I just wanted to let you know that that program is being replaced by a forum for community input on bike-share stations, i.e., there will not be a film, nor a D.O.T. slide presentation or opening remarks by Senator Hoylman, but instead an open forum for people to come voice their concerns about bike-share, as well as their support.” (For more on the thinking behind why Thursday night’s bike-share event’s format was changed, see Editorial, Page 10.)

Meanwhile, those who make their living at the sidewalk’s edge have their own issues with the installation of the new bike-share docks. In Soho, more than 40 of the heavy-duty metal bike holders were set up on West Broadway’s east side between Spring and Prince Sts., prompting a protest from activist Robert Lederman, president of ARTIST (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics). Lederman — who has frequently sued the city on behalf of sidewalk vendors’ rights — said the bike docks will remove spots where artists vend on weekends, when they crowd West Broadway. Under city regulations for vendors and “street furniture,” the artists must set up a certain distance away from the bike station.

“At least eight artists or more would be losing these spaces,” Lederman said.

In turn, according to the city’s informational brochure on bike-share, the bike docks “must observe standard D.O.T. street furniture clearances” from such features as crosswalks, fire hydrants, bus stops, building entrances and subway entrances.

Lederman is forever battling the city’s efforts to commercialize public spaces used by art vendors. New York’s bike-share program — dubbed Citi Bike after its financer, Citibank — is merely another commercialization scheme, in his view.

“The whole thing is nothing but an ad,” he scoffed. “It’s just another example of corporate privatization of public space — moving ads, all over the city.”

Asked if he would litigate against the West Broadway bike station, Lederman said no because the sidewalk artists “don’t have standing.”

“Some store owner or landlord would have the right to sue,” he said. “That’s where I would guess the significant opposition would come from.”

Also, Lederman said, he’s too busy right now battling the Parks Department’s restrictions on artists and musicians in parks.

Similarly, some sidewalk food vendors are also being forced to vacate their usual spots by the new bike docks.

Merchants — those in storefronts — near the recently installed 42-bike station on West Broadway had mixed reactions to it this week.

Andrew Moore, owner of Stuart Moore jewelry boutique, said it seems like a good idea to him.

“I was just in Amsterdam,” he said. “They have a really nice bike-share program there. In this age of bikes, it’ll bring tourists here. It’ll be interesting.”

(He also noted he was recently in San Francisco where people are currently in an uproar over “pop-up cafes” in the streets, sometimes two or three per block.)

Moore likes the vitality of the street artists and thinks they actually might benefit from the new bike-share station.

“The bikes could bring clients to them, too,” he noted. “Let’s give it a chance — it isn’t even summer yet.”

A local gallerist, however, who requested her gallery’s name not be printed, was skeptical.

“We only got a notice a week before it was installed,” she complained of the Soho bike depot. “I think it’s highly dangerous where it’s located. It’s a busy, two-way street.”

She admitted with a laugh that she’s not much of a cyclist, though, not having rode a bike in the past five years.

Cara Faris, a sales associate at the MO851 fashion boutique, said everyone is just watching and waiting — with some customers wondering if the bike station is an art installation.

“I think right now people are just trying to figure out when the bikes are going to show up,” she said. “Yesterday a few people came in and said, ‘What exactly is that?’ They thought it was like a sculpture or something or some sort of exhibition.”

Just as with merchants, it’s not hard to get residents to share their views on the new bike-share stations. Within just a 20-minute period early Tuesday evening The Villager found a wide range of opinions among passersby at the bike-share dock on Renwick St. at Spring St., just steps from the newspaper’s office.

Claudia Perez, 17, said she was “neutral” on the issue.

“I don’t really mind,” she said of the metallic bike corral plopped down in front of her home. She said her friends at Millennium High School aren’t really talking about bike-share.

Cristina Botero, 25, walking her dachshund, Mambo, around the block, said she’s really looking forward to the public pedaling program.

“I lived in Paris where they have a very established [bike-share] program,” she said, “and I used it every day to go to school. It’s impossible to get cabs there.”

Botero, a consultant for nonprofits, said she would use Citi Bike to go to brunch and visit museums, and also to ride on the Hudson River bikeway. A half hour pedal on the park path would be plenty, she said, when asked about the program’s time limit. Also, with bike-share there’s no fear about one’s own bike being stolen off the street, she added.

But architect Marianne Hyde, another block resident, said the bike station being stuck in front of her building — and right at the corner, no less — is a problem.

The other day, she said, a U.P.S. truck driver couldn’t make the turn onto Renwick St. and had to remove one of the bike station’s white plastic bollards. Plus, the new structure takes away residents’ ability to park their cars in front of their own building, she added. And how will the building’s garbage be picked up, she wondered, with the bike station there?

“The whole building is unhappy,” Hyde said. “It’s a narrow street — and there are three construction projects on it. This adds more complexity to the street.

“And we have several bars, Emerald Inn, Anchor Bar and Sway,” she added. “It gets crazy at night at 4 a.m. Can you imagine all the drunk people coming out and trying to bike home?”

(According to “Tipsy on Wheels,” an Aug. 7, 2010, article in The New York Times, biking under the influence is not explicitly illegal, but a drunk cyclist can be charged with reckless endangerment or public intoxication, just as a pedestrian can.)

Hyde said she definitely planned to attend Thursday’s C.B. 2 bike-share forum where people will air their concerns.

Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, sees another looming problem, specifically for the bike-share kiosks, where users will swipe their credit cards. He said he recently noticed the Citi Bike kiosk at the corner of LaGuardia Place and W. Third St. had been plastered with a KATSU tag, by the ubiquitous sticker fiend of the same name.

“You watch it — it’s a graffiti magnet,” Sweeney predicted of the kiosks. “Why didn’t they put above the Citi Bike logo ‘Deface Me’? — because that’s what’s going to happen.”

Sweeney also said it would have been smarter to start the bike-share program smaller, and then, based on the results, decide whether to expand it.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn strode toward the podium to give her remarks at Monday night’s candidates forum.

BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL  |  Four Democratic candidates for mayor were welcomed to the Village Monday night to offer their visions for the city. The forum, at the L.G.B.T. Center on W. 13th St., was sponsored by the Village Independent Democrats, Village Reform Democratic Club, Downtown Independent Democrats and several other clubs and groups.

The candidates who participated — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former Councilmember Sal Albanese, Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio — didn’t meet face to face. The format allowed each candidate 10 minutes to state his or her case, followed by a 15-minute Q&A before departing the meeting.

Half an hour before the forum began, 10 Quinn supporters stood outside the Center holding signs and passing out fliers. Their presence foreshadowed the enthusiastic greeting Quinn would receive from a room filled with many longtime friends and supporters.

Before the forum began, District Leader Keen Berger admitted she was excited.

“I’m a political junkie,” she said. “The thing I care about and know the most about is education,” she noted, mentioning one of the many topics the candidates would expound on. Other issues dominating the evening’s conversation included affordable housing, stop-and-frisk, hydrofracking and the Spectra pipeline.

Several in the audience confessed to being undecided about whom to vote for. But West Village resident Ellen Peterson-Lewis had already made up her mind and was proudly sporting a “Christine Quinn” sticker on her dress.

“She is on the right track on women’s issues, education, affordable housing,” Peterson-Lewis said. When asked about Quinn’s vote to overturn the term limits law, giving Mayor Bloomberg and others in the Council — including Quinn — a third term, Lewis demurred.

“I think the term limits issue was a hot-button issue,” she said. “It’s a nonissue today.”

Attorney and former Council candidate Peter Gleason, however, expressed shock at the expressions of support for Quinn.

“This building stands in the shadow of St. Vincent’s,” he said, referring to the shuttered hospital. Nodding at the vocal Quinn supporters, he added, “If you know you’re walking into hostile territory, you bring a posse of supporters because perception is reality.”

Quinn didn’t get a single question on term limits or, for that matter, the other elephant in almost every room she’s debated in, potential mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. She began her remarks with education; specifically, the accomplishment of getting the city to buy 75 Morton St.

“It’s going to be the definition of what a 21st-century middle school will be,” she enthused.

Quinn touched on the necessity of providing affordable housing, updating the landmarking process and saving community gardens.

“We cannot let the Hudson River Park, in small ways, be taken away from us,” she said to cheers.

During the Q&A, Quinn admitted to having “concerns” about fracking and the Spectra pipeline but said she hasn’t made a final decision. She called the city’s Rent Guidelines Board a “kangaroo court” and said open areas, like parking lots, on New York City Housing Authority grounds should not be auctioned off for private development to the highest bidder.

In contrast to Quinn’s confidence, Sal Albanese’s tone was more measured. In a jab at Quinn, Albanese said he was not accepting contributions from developers. He called for universal pre-K in schools and for teachers to “stop teaching to the test.” If elected mayor, he would develop a “Department of Early Learning.”

Albanese zeroed in on the economy, saying he wants to incentivize businesses to hire more unemployed.

“We have politicians who spend more time at cocktail parties than listening to their citizens,” he said. “Our political system is flooded with big money.”

Asked about government tax incentives, Albanese said he’s no fan. The Barclays Center is a great place, he suggested, but the jobs and housing promised after its opening never materialized.

He lamented the loss of St. Vincent’s Hospital while promising, if elected, to provide healthcare in every neighborhood.

Asked about stop-and-frisk, Albanese said no one should be stopped in violation of the Constitution. As mayor, he would call for hiring 3,800 more police officers and work to establish better rapport with communities. He also proposed reform of the drug laws, calling marijuana arrests “ridiculous.”

Albanese admitted to being skeptical of selling off parcels in public housing complexes to pay for repairs to the existing buildings.

Asked about the term limits extension, Albanese bristled.

“I think it’s one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice in the last 20 to 30 years,” he declared. He supports Bloomberg’s large-soda ban, but questioned the mayor’s priorities.

“We’ve got people who don’t have homes,” he said.

As he does at most public events, city Comptroller John Liu shook the hands of all those he passed on his way to the stage. Exuding confidence, Liu energized the crowd with his opening statement, “Jobs are more of what we need.”

After describing his years growing up in the city, he curiously recounted an event that has been called into question, and even ridiculed, by the media.

“My mom did spend many years working in a sweatshop,” he said, noting it’s a claim \ the Daily News keeps trying to debunk.

Calling the term limits extension a “subversion of democracy,” Liu said he also took issue with Bloomberg’s approach to city government. In his first week in office, Liu learned of CityTime, a program to computerize timekeeping of city employees. CityTime’s cost subsequently ballooned to more than $700 million, more than 10 times its original estimate. Liu claimed he helped recoup $500 million of that through audits and contract scrutiny.

The comptroller was also critical of the Council’s “slush fund” and lulus, calling them “a subversion of the open budgeting process.”

He then digressed to talk about the federal investigation of his former campaign treasurer and a fundraiser. Noting the four-year-long inquest and a trial that coincides with campaign season, Liu declared himself, “proud of my campaign fundraising,” adding he didn’t accept contributions from Wall Street or those doing business with the city.

“Come what may, I’m going full steam ahead,” he said to applause. “Investigate! I have nothing to hide.”

During the Q&A, Liu said that as mayor he’d seek out “new blood” and would look to “clean house” of city commissioners.

Asked about the yearly $16 million tax exemption for Madison Square Garden, Liu said he’d get rid of it.

“How many of you get tax exemptions?” he asked.

A question about the South Street Seaport had Liu suggesting the crowd stay tuned, since his office is preparing to release a full-blown audit of the property in June.

When East Villager Georgina Christ asked about renewable energy and the Spectra pipeline, Liu suggested that the city does little to encourage installation of solar panels, adding that he believes in harnessing the energy of rivers and winds.

“To build a pipeline underneath the densest residential area in the country? Against it!” he declared.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also decried the term limits extension, claiming anyone in his or her third term would not respond to the people’s economic needs.

“We fought for a Living Wage Bill,” de Blasio said. “Mayor Bloomberg fought it tooth and nail. Speaker Quinn watered it down.”

Saying the current economic crisis rivals the Great Depression, de Blasio called for stopping “the endless giveaways to the real estate community.”

He also advocated for an end to Bloomberg’s attempts to “privatize everything in sight.” He suggested taxing the wealthy to pay for pre-K classes and early childhood education.

Asked about the proliferation of bike lanes, de Blasio said he favors even more expansion, calling the lanes, “good for the city,” while also backing stricter enforcement for those cyclists who disregard safety.

De Blasio admitted he was not familiar with the topics of the Hudson River Park Neighborhood Improvement District, or NID, and the Spectra pipeline and wanted to learn more before discussing them.

Asked about stop-and-frisk, de Blasio said, “I absolutely think we need a new police commissioner,” though adding he appreciated what Ray Kelly has accomplished. He said the average cop doesn’t like stop-and-frisk because it’s basically a quota system.

Fielding more questions, de Blasio said New York University needed to keep its territorial ambitions in check. He said there had been a way to save St. Vincent’s but the powers that be didn’t want to do it.

“Oh, and by the way,” he added, “their good friends in real estate did quite well in the bargain.”

V.I.D. will hold a forum for public advocate and borough president candidates on Tues., May 7 at the L.G.B.T. Center. They will meet to vote on and announce their endorsement for mayor, as well as for public advocate and borough president, on Thurs., May 9, at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 83 Christopher St., at 6:30 p.m.

V.I.D. has already endorsed in local City Council primary races, backing Corey Johnson and Jenifer Rajkumar, as well as Rosie Mendez for re-election.

Much to the community’s dismay, the Pathmark was closed in December to make way for the new development.

On Friday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Senator Daniel Squadron and Councilmember Margaret Chin issued a joint statement on the agreement:

“As part of our ongoing effort to ensure that our Lower East Side neighbors have access to fresh food and other essentials,” they said, “we met with the developer of the former Pathmark site at 227 Cherry St. and received a commitment that a full-service supermarket will be built as part of the project.

“This is an area that is underserved when it comes to the availability of fresh and affordable food. That is why we fought plans to close the Pathmark and have been advocating for another supermarket to replace it. Extell Development Company has assured us that a food market will be built,” the politicians said, “and we look forward to seeing it open. We are also advocating for a temporary market to open while construction is underway.”

Photo by Jefferson Siegel
The Peter Stuyvesant post office on E. 14th St. is scheduled to close next February.

BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL  |  More than 100 people packed a town hall meeting Monday night to voice concern over the proposed relocation of the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office. The current E. 14th St. facility is scheduled to close in February 2014.

Joseph Mulvey, facilities implementation specialist for the U.S. Postal Service, did little to quell the anger of locals demanding specifics. His opening statement, “We are proposing the relocation of the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office,” prompted calls of “Where?” from several in the audience. Mulvey continued to hedge, at one point admitting there was available space within a tenth of a mile in either direction of the current location. It would take more audience demands of “Where?” before he finally divulged, “333 E. 14th St. seems to be available.”

That address, a block west of the current post office, is a former Duane Reade drugstore across the street from the Fire Department’s Ladder 5 stationhouse.

Mulvey’s own question, “Is that an acceptable location to the community?” was met with a resounding “No!”

The audience’s mood escalated from agitation to anger as plans for postal services were grudgingly revealed. As Julius Caesar divided Gaul into three parts, the Postal Service proposal would send current services at the Stuyvesant P.O. to three other locations.

The storefront at 333 E. 14th St. would offer retail services, such as stamp sales and P.O. boxes. The carriers who sort and deliver mail to homes and businesses would be moved to the Madison Square Station, on E. 23rd Street near Third Ave. Large parcel services would operate out of the F.D.R. Station at 54th St. and Third Ave.

Georgina Christ, an East Villager for 42 years, suggested, “Are they going to walk their carts down here [from 23rd St.], because that doesn’t seem to be very cost-effective. That’s just ludicrous.”

“This is devastating to this community,” City Councilmember Rosie Mendez said, voicing alarm at the proposal. “As it is there are long lines — it’s a well-utilized post office in the area.”

Mendez was especially concerned for the neighborhood’s many seniors who get medications in the mail and would have to travel to pick up packages that don’t fit into their building’s mailboxes.

“Either way, you’re talking about having to take a bus,” she said. “Either way it entails traveling.”

Councilmember Dan Garodnick, a Peter Cooper Village resident, echoed her concerns.

“This post office is providing a vital service to the residents of Stuyvesant Town all the way down to the East Village and Lower East Side,” he said. “If they need to move one door or a couple of doors over, we’re open to that, but the services must continue.”

The situation of Eve Cusson, who has lived on Avenue C for 43 years, typifies the problem facing the community.

“I have a grandson in the Army in Kuwait and I’m constantly sending him packages,” she said. “Where else am I going to send them from?”

Valerie Heinonen, who has lived on Avenue C since 1977, was outraged, saying post offices mirror our society.

“Post offices are a sign of a democracy,” she declared, “as are libraries, public housing and public schools, all of which are being sold out from under us.”

Joseph Hernandez, who grew up in the area, leaning on his cane, looked at Mulvey and warned, “We always find out the truth on the Lower East Side.” Hernandez was right, although it took almost two hours for Mulvey to finally reveal, in detail, how the current situation evolved.

The building’s landlord, whom Mulvey would not identify, told the Postal Service he had other plans for the two-story structure. The current lease, set to expire in February 2013 was extended one year, to February 2014.

The parties could not reach an agreement for the current location. Despite the audience’s demands, Mulvey refused to reveal the current rent.

After a 15-day comment period from the public on the proposed relocation, a postal headquarters facility manager in Washington, D.C., will review all the comments. Next comes a window for appeal of any decision.

“What month were you going to notify the community of the impact?” demanded Jonathan Smith, president of the New York Metro Postal Union. “Where are you going to find better property than the best you already have?”

As he did for most of the town hall, Mulvey sat patiently listening. Gigi Li, chairperson of Community Board 3, who moderated the meeting with Sandro Sherrod, chairperson of C.B. 6, and Councilmember Mendez, said community members have till May 7 to submit their comments to U.S.P.S.

In order to deal with its soaring debt, the Postal Service plans post office closings nationwide. In New York City it has proposed closing five branches; one in the Bronx and four in Manhattan, including the Stuyvesant branch and the Old Chelsea branch, on W. 18th St.

Built in 1951, the 56,900-square-foot building on E. 14th St., between First Ave. and Avenue A, and the land underneath it have a reported market value of $8.1 million.

Comments, which must include the name Peter Stuyvesant Post Office, can be sent to: Joseph J. Mulvey, Facilities Implementation, U.S. Postal Service, 2 Congress St., Room 8, Milford, MA 01757-9998.

Renderings of the dorm plan for the old P.S. 64, showing students using the renovated front-entrance terrace on E. Ninth St., above, and new dorm rooms, at right.

BY SARAH FERGUSON | Ten years ago, developer Gregg Singer stirred up a fury of opposition when he proposed razing the old P.S. 64 school building on E. Ninth St. to put up a 19-story dormitory tower.

Now Singer is pitching a downscaled dorm plan to house up to 529 students in the existing turn-of-the century school building, which was landmarked in 2006, after community members mobilized to block him from tearing it down.

Last time, the city refused to approve Singer’s dormitory tower because he did not have any actual leases with schools or universities to show proof of an “institutional nexus” for the property, which is zoned for community facility use.

The courts upheld the city’s decision, saying Singer could not build an “on-spec” dorm without any schools on board.

This time, however, Singer says he’s confident his project “is going forward”— in large part because The Cooper Union has signed a 15-year lease to house up to 196 of its students on two of the building’s five floors.

“Cooper Union is our anchor tenant,” Singer said proudly of his revamped “state-of-the-art” dorm, dubbed “University House,” which he’s aiming to open in fall 2014.

In an hour-long interview on Tuesday at the offices of The Villager, Singer presented digital images of the new dorm scheme, showing students lounging in tree-shaded courtyards on the Ninth and 10th St. sides of the H-shaped school building, which for two decades housed the CHARAS/El Bohio community center.

“Once completed, the dormitory will feature amenities unavailable in modern apartment buildings,” a press release boasts. The new plans call for 95 suites housing four to seven students, at a cost of $1,550 per bed. Each suite would have its own kitchen, bathroom and dining room area with “large” flat-screen TV, and bedrooms furnished with bunk beds, desks and personal safes for the students to store their valuables. Some of the units show spiral staircases leading up to loft spaces, taking advantage of the 14-foot ceiling height on all floors.

Many of the upper floor suites have views of the Empire State Building.

The basement — formerly home to a 400-seat auditorium where F.D.R. once riled the masses, and where the Fringe Festival was staged — would now house a bike room, fitness center, TV lounge and game rooms outfitted with pool, ping-pong and foosball tables, along with Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

“This is the most advanced dorm in Manhattan as far as technology goes,” Singer claimed. In addition to wireless service throughout the dorm, each student would have their own Cat 6 cable to connect them to their school’s computer system, Singer said.

Singer said the pricing was comparable to what New York University and the New School charge for dorm space. An in-house health center run by Beth Israel and staffed by a full-time physician’s assistant would offer free healthcare to residents. There would also be a cafe, study rooms and soundproof music rooms on four of the five floors — so students can jam on site.

“We think we will have some music schools leasing from us,” Singer predicted.

While the building would continue to be owned by Singer and his partners in 9th and 10th Street LLC, the dorm would be run by a management company that specializes in student properties across the country. There would also be 24-hour security and “lots of cameras throughout the building, so parents know it’s safe,” Singer assured.

A brochure for University Houses notes the building’s “exceptional location next to the wireless Tompkins Square Park, farmers market, music and art festivals, summer film nights, basketball and handball courts, and open grass areas for lounging.” Students, it notes, will be able to take advantage of the M8 bus that stops on 10th St., along with Alphabet City’s “many affordable restaurants, cafes and nightlife venues.”

All of which is sure to elicit outrage from area residents who have long feared a dorm would overwhelm the character of the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, the East Village Community Coalition, which was founded to stop Singer’s previous dormitory tower, began circulating an online petition demanding that Cooper Union not house its students there.

“Respect our community. Respect this community treasure,” the petition says of the old P.S. 64. “Dormitory use does not serve our community.”

E.V.C.C. Director Sara Romanowski said that while the new University House plan is smaller than Singer’s previous tower scheme, “It’s still 500 students. It’s a large concentration, and not under the supervision of any one institution, which is even more nerve-wracking.”

Singer shrugs off such complaints.

“Manhattan has almost 2 million people. These kids are already coming to the East Village,” he said.

“They are putting three to four students in studios around here,” he noted. “This is a safe and managed environment. Isn’t that better than cramming them in all these brownstones?”

He points to a study he commissioned by Greenwich Realty Advisors that determined that Manhattan faces a shortfall of 57,000 dormitory beds.

While N.Y.U. and the New School have already said they aren’t interested, Singer predicts he will have plenty of interest from small and midsize schools that can’t afford to build their own dorms.

That’s certainly the case of the beleaguered Cooper Union, which this week announced it would be forced to charge undergraduate tuition starting in fall 2014 in order to sustain itself.

Currently, Cooper has just one dorm on Third Ave., housing 178 of its freshmen, out of a total student body of roughly 1,000.

“Some of our students have had to move further and further away to find housing,” said Claire McCarthy, the school’s director of public relations. “Our students tend to work late into the night in their studios, so we were looking to find housing for them closer to our campus,” which is located at Astor Place and Cooper Square.

McCarthy seemed unaware of the animosity that Singer has engendered since he bought the building out from under the old CHARAS community center at auction for a scant $3.15 million. Nor apparently did she or other Cooper officials fully realize the role they might now play in legitimizing Singer’s latest dorm scheme.

“It’s not something that really was on our radar,” McCarthy said of the 16-year controversy over this property. “We’ve been focused in the last 10 years on getting our new buildings built, and now dealing with our financial challenges. We only recently looked at this opportunity.”

On April 1, the Department of Buildings rejected Singer’s plans for the dorm conversion. But Singer said that was because the plans had yet to receive approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is required because the building is landmarked.

Singer has already met with L.P.C. staff to go over proposed exterior alterations, such as adding bulkheads to the rooftop, reducing the 10th St. raised plaza area to create an airy ground-floor courtyard, and replacing the big wheelchair ramp on the Ninth St. side with two smaller ramps that go directly into the basement.

On May 7, Landmarks is holding a public hearing, where people can testify for or against the project. L.P.C. must indeed issue a permit for the exterior alterations before any work can commence. However, L.P.C. spokesperson Elisabeth DeBourbon explained, “We have no jurisdiction over how the building is used, or over any interior alterations that don’t affect the exterior.”

But the big question remains, is the lease that Cooper signed enough of a commitment to meet the standard for a legal dorm?

In 2008, to stop developers from taking advantage of the so-called “community facility use bonus” to bulk up residential projects, the Buildings Department passed Rule 51-01, which requires developers to show proof of an “institutional nexus” in order to build a dorm.

To meet the criteria, a developer must either show a long-term lease (minimum 10 years) with an accredited school for all or “part” of the building, or the establishment of a nonprofit entity to run the dorm, whose board members are all representatives of participating schools. In addition, there must be a “restrictive declaration” ensuring all of the property is used as a dorm.

In this case, it’s unclear whether the “first priority lease” that Cooper signed meets that standard.

According to Singer, Cooper agreed to lease two floors for 15 years.

“Cooper is paying the lease, and the students pay the school,” he explained. “If their students don’t want to take the beds, then [Cooper] has the option to sublease those spaces to another school. It’s no different from the kind of leases used by most big institutions,” Singer added.

But Cooper plays it differently.

“We have reserved the right for students to have an option to rent there,” explained McCarthy. “We have a lease to reserve approximately 196 beds and have first rights for our students. It’s up to the students to decide if they want to rent there or elsewhere.”

McCarthy said she believed Cooper students would pay rent directly to Singer or his management firm.

“We have nothing to do with running the building or the rates charged, which would be determined by the owner,” McCarthy explained.

Both Cooper Union and Singer declined to provide The Villager with a copy of the lease, citing a confidentiality clause that Singer inserted.

At press time, the Buildings Department did not respond to repeated queries as to whether the leasing agreement with Cooper Union would qualify this project as a legal dorm.

“We’re still looking into it,” said D.O.B. spokesperson Gloria Chin.

But Councilmember Rosie Mendez says she’s not buying it.

“I’ve already placed a call to the Buildings Department, because it seems to me they don’t have a viable lease under the rules dictated by D.O.B.,” Mendez said.

“I will be filing a complaint based on what I’ve been told,” Mendez added. “Either someone here is not telling the truth, or these two parties have very different ideas of what they have contracted — all of which is problematic to me.”

Beyond that, Mendez said, “having a lease for 200 out of 500 beds is not a majority share, so I don’t know how you can be the anchor tenant with less than 50 percent of the property.

“Show us the lease, let’s see what Cooper actually signed on for,” Mendez challenged, adding, “I truly believe that [Cooper Union] President Jamshed Bharucha was not given a complete history of the building when he signed on to this. Cooper is now in an untenable situation with the community, because they were not given all the facts.”

So far, L.P.C. has issued permits to replace the broken and cracked wooden windows with aluminum-frame windows, and is in the process of issuing a permit for Singer to perform necessary repointing and patching work. Singer said he also plans to replace terracotta facade work that he previously hacked off the building with new fiberglass versions.

For his part, Singer insists the new dorm scheme will ultimately be welcomed by the community.

“What I am giving them is a renovated building that adds vitality and life to the community,” he noted of the dorm plan, which is projected to cost $40 million.

He pointed to his own petition, circulated in 2008, showing support for a “student dormitory” from some 700 local business “owners,” including longtime East Village institutions like Guerra Paint & Pigment on E. 13th St. and Bella Tile.

“Unused as an elementary school since 1977, the century-old structure sat empty for the past 11 years,” reads an April 18 press release on the University House dorm. “The building occupies much of the city block, where its vacancy has inhibited local development and the growth of small businesses in the neighborhood.”

Conspicuously left out is any mention of CHARAS and the lingering resentment over the community space that was lost.

Asked whether he could provide any space in the building for a community center, Singer said he has to be realistic and that he won’t get any loans approved unless it’s a financially viable project.

Neighborhood agitator John Penley said both Singer and Cooper Union should brace for more protest. While he firmly disassociates himself from whoever torched three cars outside the school on Sat., April 6, following an aborted sidewalk campout to protest the new dorm plan, Penley said Cooper should consider that a warning.

“It’s just a magnet for trouble,” he said.

Mendez said she met with Cooper President Bharucha to voice her displeasure.

“I told him I’m not happy with this dorm plan, the community is not happy,” she said. “There will be protests, and I will be joining in when that happens.”