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BY SAM SPOKONYWhat gives Bill Di Paola the right to

think his museum is more real than anyone elses, anyway?

Its real because Ive got a shovel in my hand! he said, laughing, as he heaved a load of sand into a pit at La Plaza Cultural, one of the East Villages most historic community gardens.

To his right, Laurie Mittelmann followed with her own shovelful. The two of them had walked down the block to the garden after cleaning

fl oors all morning at their new Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), which is getting ready to open soon.

Its real because were doing the work ourselves, said Di Paola, and were going to show the stories of the everyday people of this community who did it themselves.

Those stories of East Village activists, squatters, environmentalists and other leaders of all stripes will soon be told at MoRUS, of which Di Paola and Mittelmann are co-founders.

And while the neighborhood certainly has changed in recent decades, the spirit that went into shaping it seems to remain alive and well.

MoRUS is located in the storefront of the legendary C-Squat building at 155 Avenue C. The museum seeks to present the history of various commu-nity struggles fi rst, to revitalize the East Village and Lower East Side, after many buildings and lots were neglected

Volume 82, Number 6 $1.00 West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933 July 12 - 18, 2012

Continued on page 6

Museum on activism claimsits place in the East Village

BY MICHELE HERMAN If the far West Village were a sovereign nation and Tortilla Flats its capi-tal, the flag would be fly-ing at half-mast this sum-mer to mark the death of 95-year-old actor Ernest Borgnine. Through his unlikely friendship with t h e l o n g - l i v e d Te x -Mex joint at 12th and Washington Sts., Ernie

was our honorary neigh-bor who happened to live in L.A. The relationship began as an in-joke, but tellingly it was never a mean one. Sure, just saying the word Borgnine so perfectly matched with the famous-ly ugly, gap-toothed mug wins an easy laugh.

Continued on page 5

Spirit of Ernieand his grin shoneat Tex-Mex cafe

BY ALBERT AMATEAUWestbeth, the artists

residence converted 40 years ago from the old Bell Laboratories complex, has recently completed a $9.8 million financing agree-ment for a long-needed maintenance project.

The agreement with Signature Bank became final last month after a yearlong process to deter-mine how to finance urgent maintenance of the five-

building complex, whose oldest structure was built 150 years ago.

The process involved input from consultants, local elected officials and the residential tenants association, said Ronni Denes, president of the Westbeth board of direc-tors.

This loan is critical to renewing our aging infra-

Westbeth securesfi nancing for majorstructural repairs

Continued on page 12

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2 July 12 - 18, 2012

In another troubling incident in Washington Square Park, on Sunday afternoon a crusty trav-eler punk harassed a senior in the parks fountain.

Around 3 p.m., as several dozen people sat around the fountain watching two toddlers frolicking in the water, a crusty type entered the fountain with his dog and sat down. The dog proceeded to spread its legs and urinate into the water.

Several people gasped but the only person to speak up was an elderly man who had been sitting nearby with a woman on the steps inside the fountain.

The senior told the crusty he should stop his dog from urinating and remove the pet from the fountain. The crusty punk yelled back at the senior, Its a dog, its an animal! The senior said he didnt care, just get it out of the water.

As the crusty verbally threatened the senior, yelling he would punch the old man out, the senior took his cell phone and said he was call-ing the police. The crusty said as soon as the older man was done calling, he would knock him out. Then the punk approached the senior and, screaming, shoved him and tore the old mans sunglasses off, throwing the glasses into the water and stomping on them.

The crusty again verbally threatened the senior before leaving the fountain and walking over to join several other crusties on a nearby bench.

Several minutes later, two men who had been sitting on the bench with the crusty with the dog walked over to the fountain, sat just behind the senior and started verbally intimidating him by screaming, Hey, Im just sitting here.

At this point the senior and his female companion chose to leave the fountain. As they walked east out of the park, the fi rst crusty approached them, yelling at them again before walking away. Then the young crusties gathered back on the bench, laughing.

During this whole time there were no police offi cers or Park Enforcement Patrol offi cers vis-ible in the area.

Fifteen minutes later, a PEP S.U.V. came into the park from the south entrance. The vehicle stopped by a group of musicians playing quiet jazz music. A PEP offi cer got out of the S.U.V., approached them and advised them that they could continue playing but had to turn off their small amplifi ers. The offi cer was unaware of the earlier incident.

Deputy Inspector Brandon del Pozo said no complaint was fi led with the Sixth Precinct about the incident with the crusty.

As for what the crusty did to the senior, del Pozo said, it could be classifi ed as criminal mis-chief or at least harassment, a misdemeanor. Asked if it was an arrestable offense, he said, yes.

If somebody was the victim of a crime in the park, we urge them to come forward, he said.

Although some locals complain the crusties are belligerent and are ruining others park experience, del Pozo said, The crusties we cant just kick them out of the park. His offi cers patrol the park, he said, and will do enforcement against individuals when theyre in violation of park rules or committing some crime.

Rumors had falsely linked the crusties to an assault in the park the previous Sunday. In fact, that incident involved a dispute between two older, local homeless men. One struck the other, 44, over the eye with a metal pipe, drawing lots

of blood, according to police.On June 15, three crusties, using white paint,

splattered graffi ti some of it obscene on the front of St. Marks Church, at E. 10th St. and Second Ave., before fl eeing. Police canvassed the area but didnt fi nd them. A group of crusties hangs out in front of the church in Abe Lebewohl Park.

Top: A crusty traveler punk enters the Washington Square fountain with his dog, which spreads its legs and urinates. Middle: After an elderly man tells the crusty to stop his pooch from peeing, the crusty screams at and verbally threatens the senior. Bottom: The crusty shoves the senior, rips his sun-glasses off his face, then (not shown) throws them into the fountain and stomps on them, breaking them.

Peed-off crusty threatens senior, trashes his glasses

July 12 - 18, 2012 3

PEA SOUP P.U.! Its time to change the Washington Square Park fountain water! It was green and soupy look-ing when we went by on Monday. Obviously, it wasnt because it was St. Patricks Day. It was algae. The water jets spurting up from the fountain even had a distinctly green tinge. According to a frequent parkgoer, it had been that way a few days. A Parks Department spokesperson said, The fountains water system uses bromine as an algaecide/disinfectant. We will refresh the system to ensure it remains fully functional. We looked up bromine online, and apparently it not the algae was what was causing the bleach-like odor in the fountain plaza: In Greek, bromine means stench of he goats.... Also, three port-a-potties were recently installed in the park, so at least there will be somewhere to go during the next year while the parks com-fort station is being rebuilt. We hear Parks initially balked at installing them because theyre a pain to maintain.

CONGRATS! When we called Deputy Inspector Brandon del Pozo this week we heard a loud wail at the other end of the phone. No, it wasnt a police siren it was Rex, the new baby boy born in May to del Pozo and his wife, Sarah. Rex joins big bro, Zane, 4. The Sixth Precinct commander shared a cute anecdote about his latest member of the squad. On New Years Eve, a Barrow St. woman participat-ing in a noisy, late-night, Occupy Wall Street march through the Village drumming, chanting, the works was arrested for disorderly conduct for making a racket. When the activ-ist subsequently learned del Pozo had a new baby, she gave him a gift a little, childrens-sized drum. Asked if he felt the woman was trying to ensure his son grows up to be an

Occupier, del Pozo said, I thought it was great. My older son has been driving me crazy with it.

CHIC HOT WHEELS: According to the Sixth Precinct, on Tues., July 3, an emotionally disturbed person got into the park-ing garage at 3 Sheridan Square and stole a car belonging to Jean-Marc Houmard, the owner of Indochine, the famed restaurant and nightlife spot on Lafayette St. The First Precinct recovered the brown 89 Mercedes Benz convertible at Varick and Clarkson Sts. The suspect has been indicted for the car theft.

SLASH ROCKER: After we heard about punk rocker Harley Flanagan trying to slash up the Cro-Mags at Webster Hall last week at a hard-core show in the CBGB Festival, we reached out to Laraby Bishop-Sharp. We remembered her telling us she dated one of the Cro-Mags back in the day. (We met Lara a few years ago at the Christodora House at a protest by a group of homeless middle-aged L.E.S. Slacktivists who were calling for Michael Rosen to adopt them, since Rosen had helped raise several local boys from the neighborhood.) Anyway, we thought she had possibly dated Flanagan, but we werent sure. I dated Parris [Mitchell Mayhew], NOT Harley, she e-mailed us. And Parris and I are still very close friends. I DO have one thing to say... Harley has kids. Those kids just lost their father. And, what their father did is all over the media. That sucks for the kids, big time! The entire situ-ation is really sad. According to the New York Natives Web site, Flanagan claims he acted in self-defense. NYN says it will have an exclusive interview with him soon.

B.P.C. PEOPS OUT: The last art show at the Bowery Poetry Club as we know it is by Fly, who is exhibiting her PEOPS, and had an opening party there Sunday for her PEOPS #7 zine. BoPo, as its known to some, will close for renovations early next week. B.P.C.s Bob Holman dropped in to perform at Flys show, along with poet Hettie Jones. Holman has posted a statement on the places Web site, saying, The rumors of the Bowery Poetry Clubs death are greatly exaggerated! We hear from a source

that the place will reopen as a sort of fancy restaurant, with the Bowery Poetry Club only operating on weekends.

KITTY-CATTIN AROUND: We bumped into Doris Diether of Community Board 2 in Washington Square Park the other day and she proudly told us she has a new 10-week-old kitten to replace her feline friend Mr. Bip, who recently passed away at the prodigious age of 19. Its kind of a wild kitten, she told us. Its one of a litter of six from a feral cat from someones backyard. But Im sure I can tame it down eventually. His name is Lucky. Lucky is being followed everywhere by Doriss other cat, Missy, which is freaking out the young feral feline.

LAGUARDIA LEASE WORRIES: As we were chatting with Diether, Ray Cline came by. He was heading to a meeting with N.Y.U. representatives on the issue of renewing 505 LaGuardia Places ground lease. Cline wasnt feeling too upbeat. They keep asking us to give up all our rights for the next 30 years, he said. One provision N.Y.U. is requesting, for example, he said, is that if even one tenant in the Mitchell-Lama building sues the university, then that cases outcome would affect every single other tenant in the place i.e. all or nothing.

SOHO PLANTER WARS: A peaceful protest is set to occur Sat., July 14, at 102 Prince St., from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. against the strategic placement of anti-artist-vendor plant-ers on the pavement. Huge planters have been placed on the sidewalk illegally to evict veterans, artists and people who desperately need to earn a very modest living, an expected protester e-mailed us. Vendors bring customers to the area, helping all the business people.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the obituary on Steve Ben Israel by Bill Weinberg in our June 7 issue referred to him as Ben Israel throughout. However, Ben was his middle name. As Weinberg explains it, Right, ben is Hebrew for son, so every-one thought his surname was Ben Israel, as in Son of Israel. But that wasnt it. Israel was defi nitely a son of the Village.

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