It appears the State Supreme Court is going to be kept busy next week dealing with the legal maneuverings of the candidates running for the First District City Council seat. Earlier today, we reported that candidate Margaret Chin has filed suit against rival PJ KIm. Now comes word that Councilman Alan Gerson, who has been thrown off the ballot, has filed a suit against the city's Board of Elections. Also, another candidate, Pete Gleason, has filed an "invalidating petition," against Gerson and the Elections Board, arguing that he should not be allowed back on the ballot.
The Gerson campaign has said a printer's error was responsible for an incorrect address on the cover sheet on one volume of his petitions. This is how the Downtown Express has characterized what happened next:
When the Board of Elections wrote Gerson about the
mistake, he sent one of his campaign volunteers down to fix the error.
The volunteer, who is an elections lawyer, crossed off the extra “1”s
but forgot one key thing: At the bottom of the amended cover sheet, he
was supposed to write, “This is to certify that I am authorized to file
this amended cover sheet” and then sign and date it, said Valerie
Vazquez, spokesperson for the Board of Elections. Gerson
said the volunteer realized his mistake while he was still in the
building and tried to correct it, but the Board of Elections would not
allow him to do so. “You only have one
opportunity to cure a defect,” Vazquez said. The cover sheet “was not
presented to the board in accordance with the rules.”
The article, in yesterday's newspaper, continues:
Gerson, who is a lawyer, defended his decision to not
go down to the Board of Elections himself when the issue with the
petitions first came to light last week. “I’m
not an election lawyer, I didn’t think it was necessary, and my first
priority remains the business of my district,” Gerson said.
The Gleason camp is calling into question the Gerson statement that he did not go to the Board of Elections Office personally. Gleason's lawyer, Ray Dowd, says if it can be proven that Gerson was handling the issue himself, then he's guilty of fraud. Even if Gerson wasn't present, Dowd contends Gerson was still responsible for the actions of his staffers and the printer. Dowd says the Gleason campaign is not dwelling on a trivial matter. Instead, he argues the counter-lawsuit is about upholding an important principle: the integrity of the petition process — and a framework that is meant to ensure the candidates on the ballot have a "mandate from the people."
But the Gerson team made a different argument in the Downtown Express article:
Lawrence A. Mandelker, an election lawyer Gerson hired,
said the Board of Elections was wrong to ask Gerson to submit an
amended cover sheet in the first place, since there was no problem with
the original cover sheet. The board could have just discounted the
petitions with the incorrect address, which would have left more than
enough signatures to qualify Gerson for the ballot, Mandelker said. The
goal of election law is to prevent fraud, “And here, there was no
fraud,” Mandelker said. “It’s an outrageous thing, and I don’t think
the court would stand for it for one second.”
We have a call into the Gerson campaign, seeking comment.
The Gleason campaign is also challenging candidate Arthur Gregory's petitions through the Election Board's normal complaint procedure.This is what Gregory had to say about that on his Facebook page:
My petitions have been challenged by John Ross hwo live on W. Broadway in Tiberca NYC, He says he did it because friends told him and his wife Catherine, that I supported loud noise bars, (which I do not). He then stated it was really Pete Gleason one of my oppentants, who for day's has said he had not, until his lawer R. Dowd told him to. I have 2 get a lawyer now.
Regarding the Chin/Kim suit, we have heard back from Margaret Chin's campaign manager Jake Itzkowitz about the lawsuit she has filed against Kim. Here's a portion of the statement he emailed to us:
Margaret Chin… has filed a legal challenge to Jin ‘PJ’
Kim’s designating petitions contending that on top of an alarmingly high rate
of invalid signatures, a large number of the witness statements in Kim’s
petitions were either forged or tampered with. Margaret Chin, who has always
fought for equality and justice, saw the gross forgeries as an assault on the
rights of the voters in District 1 to have authentic candidates on the ballot… As to why we chose to raise these issues in court, rather than at the Board of Elections, fraud and tampering are serious
allegations and severe breaches of the voters trust. It is only appropriate
that these concerns are debated in a court of law.
It should be an interesting day at the courthouse on Monday.
From the “not very surprising” file, “Tides,” the tiny seafood restaurant on Norfolk, is closed for good. Earlier this month, there was a sign on the door saying the restaurant would be closed during the month of July. Today, there’s a new sign announcing that, after four years, “Tides” is calling it quits. It says, in part, “we hoped to survive in these difficult times but the lack of business made our decision obvious.”
The Seward Park Co-op is making plans to revitalize the retail strip it owns on Grand and Clinton Streets — with the eventual goal of transforming the area into a shopping and dining destination. Three new board members were recently elected to represent the Co-op’s more than 17-hundred shareholders. Seward Park’s new president, Michael Tumminia, and two longtime directors, sat down with The Lo-Down recently to discuss their vision for the future.
Head down to the East River Park for some free opera tonight at 7:00pm. (At the bandshell along the East River, between Grand and Jackson Sts.) The Metropolitan Opera continues it's series of summer recitals in the parks of all five boroughs. (Unfortunately, the Met does not offer rain dates for these shows.) Tonight's line-up is:Joyce El-Khoury, soprano, Keith Miller, bass, Vlad Iftinca, pianist and Francois Battiste will host.
Soprano Joyce El-Khoury
Rooftop Films has announced their August-September Schedule and will be back on the Lower East Side In early September at the Open Road Rooftop for a series of short films.
The District 1 City Council race is taking more twists and turns this morning. Once again, there is controversy surrounding the petitions candidates must submit to the city's Board of Elections to get on the ballot. Candidate PJ Kim tells The Lo-Down he is being sued by another candidate in the race, Margaret Chin. According to the Downtown Express, two initial complaints filed with the Board of Elections against Kim's petitions, by individuals with ties to Chin's campaign manager, were dropped. But now, Kim says he was served with court papers Wednesday evening, while attending a "meet the candidate" event at a supporter's home. A check of the New York State Supreme Court's online records confirms that Chin has, in fact, filed suit against Kim and the Board of Elections.
A statement from Kim's campaign theorizes that Chin may have decided to mount the legal challenge after incumbent City Council candidate Alan Gerson was knocked off the ballot due to a technical error because she is "worried by the changing calculus of this race." Gerson is appealing the decision before the Elections Board next Wednesday. The election rules specify that signatures candidates gather must come from registered voters who live in the district. Supporters of other candidates have alleged that Kim's petitions contain a large number of signatures from outside the district, and are therefore invalid. Another Gerson challenger, Arthur Gregory, also faces a petition challenge – we'll have more on that later today.
Meanwhile, the Downtown Express wades into a discussion that has been percolating online regarding Kim's political past. When Kim was 17, he interned for Republican Bill Frist, the senator from his home state of Tennessee. In 2001, he registered as a Republican in New York. But the newspaper notes he has volunteered for numerous Democratic candidates, including Howard Dean, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.When he moved to Massachusetts to attend Harvard, Kim registered as a Democrat and, when he returned to New York, he changed his registration here. Kim, who's 30 years old, told us how his political perspective has changed in the last decade:
…more life experience, particularly living in New York City after growing up in Tennessee and Louisiana, and my continuing education and exposure have shaped my views about social justice and market failure, balancing equity and efficiency, and the value of inclusiveness over divisiveness – all values that I am proud to advance as a volunteer on numerous campaigns, as a social entrepreneur who has worked in both business and the nonprofit sector, and now, as a candidate for City Council.
There are five candidates running in the 1st District, including Gerson, Chin, Kim, Pete Gleason and Arthur Gregory. We have reached out to Chin's campaign and the Elections Board. More later.
Public Advocate candidate Bill de Blasio celebrated his reinstatement on the September Primary ballot yesterday. NYC Council Watch reports:
Mr. de Blasio argued for less restrictive balloting and petition laws,
and called for “free legal aid” for candidates less versed than him in
the arcane intricacies of City election law.He called for Member Alan Gerson to be instated on the ballot…
Author Michael Idov discusses his debut novel, "Ground Up," which chronicles the fate of a young couple opening a Lower East Side coffee shop. Although the book is not a "purely autobiographical exercise," Michael and his wife happen to be the real-life former owners of the short-lived Cafe Trotsky.
The artist, Zito, will be painting at the Gallery Bar every weekend through September 7th. He talked with NBC New York:
Zito, whose quick-draw portraits can be a kind of performance, says the
idea came about naturally. "I like to get out there and paint in public
and involve the community," he says. In addition to painting watercolor
portraits on paper (for which a $100 donation is suggested), Zito is
also painting with acrylic on found objects that people walk into
Gallery Bar with. At the opening, he painted portraits on a program
from the play "Jesus Christ Superstar" (it takes a special person to
ask to see his head superimposed on an image of Christ), a fan, a
mirror, and a washboard. The watercolors and various painted-on
ephemera become a part of the show for the duration, so the
"Personalities" coninue to evolve.
Damaris Reyes is the executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), an influential neighborhood housing and preservation organization. Recently, we sat down with Reyes for a wide-ranging conversation on topics such as the gentrification of the LES, the redevelopment of the former SPURA site and youth violence. Reyes is the co-recipient of the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal, awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation. In addition to her leadership of GOLES, she is a key member of a Community Board 3 committee drafting a plan for SPURA, the plots of land, mostly south of Delancey Street, that have remained underutilized for 40 years.
TLD: Tell us how you became executive director of GOLES.
Reyes: I live in the neighborhood. I was born and raised here. I think everybody knows that. I live in public housing. I kind of got introduced to organizing about 13 years ago when there were some efforts to privatize public housing. There were two different bills in the House and Senate. There were some folks who were going around the neighborhood, trying to educate people, trying to counter organize and, really up until that point, I think I was detached. When you come from, and maybe this is not true for everyone, but when you come from an urban, inner city, disenfranchised, marginalized community you think that success is making lots of money and moving out and leaving this rat hole. That’s the way that you think about it. So it was really at that point that – faced with the prospect that I might not have a choice in what might happen – and just listening to people talk about the value of this neighborhood, it just really changed my whole outlook. I sort of felt like I got punched in the stomach, if that makes any sense. Something just woke up. I think, also, ever since I was a kid I really had this really high sense of injustice. It’s just something that you have. That was it. After that I started to get involved. I started to go to meetings, I started to learn more about the neighborhood and learn more about the challenges we were facing. Ultimately I went to work for the local Council member. That was another great educational experience because I got to know all of the players and the issues. Through all that, we sort of carried on the original initiative that I had sort of come into. They were talking about public housing – decided to organize a group of stake-holders to preserve the future of public housing and GOLES was a member of this group, as were other people. I was kind of organizing it. I had all these roles. Well, let’s turn this into a real project. Let’s try to get some resources and we can do some real organizing… I was having a baby and I left the job I was at and like 10 months later, I got a call, ‘do you want to be the organizer?’ And I said ‘huh?’… That’s when I came to work here and that was about 8 years ago. And when my predecessor left I had no idea that I would ever try to run this organization. It was not a goal. But folks kind of convinced me to try it out and I did… And I feel pretty grateful.
TLD: What is GOLES?
Reyes: At the end of the day I would say to folks that GOLES is a grassroots community based organization that focuses on eviction prevention, tenant rights, economic development and community revitalization. Our primary focus is to ensure that people are not displaced and to fight gentrification and ultimately to keep people in their homes and in their community.
TLD: From your perspective, how is gentrification changing the Lower East Side?
Reyes: We are a community that is looking to cater to the needs of – in a variety of ways – through the development of luxury housing, a change in the kinds of services, the diversity of goods and services, restaurant culture, nightlife for folks who are not from this neighborhood, who are affluent or are not necessarily community minded. What’s sad about it is that I think people come here because of our trendy, hipster, diverse culture, race and economics and the very essence of who we are is changing because of them coming. So, that being said, what’s really happening is that the neighborhood is so desirable — it’s like supply and demand. You know, you are a property owner and you know you can get more money for your apartment and your goal as a business person is to raise your profit and revenue, so you’re going to do that. That means there are less opportunities for people like me or the children of people who live here who might want to stay here – so it’s displacing people.
Teenager Shaquana Gardner was presented with an honor this morning by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, in recognition of her academic accomplishments and inspiring life story. Gardner won a scholarship from the Henry Street Settlement, in part, for her moving essay describing her difficulties juggling multiple crises in her family with her first two years at Syracuse University. Gardner's essay was reprinted in the Daily News. She attended the recent NAACP Convention in New York, and was supposed to meet President Obama – but due to logistical problems – that didn't quite work out. Gardner is not letting that get her down, though. She's determined to, one day, be New York's first female African American mayor. This morning she picked up a key endorsement:
As we reported yesterday, the famed Guss’ Pickles, is moving out of the Lower East Side after 89 years. In our video below, owner Pat Fairhurst gives us some background on Guss’ and tells us why she is compelled to leave the neighborhood.
The Lo-Down contacted the city's Board of Elections this afternoon. Spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez says Manhattan candidate appeals will be heard next Wednesday at 11am, not Monday as some news outlets have been reporting. If Councilman Gerson wants to appeal the board's decision to kick him off the ballot — that's when it will happen. Earlier today, City Hall News reported that Vasquez had indicated only the County Supreme Court could reverse that decision.
We also talked with Gerson campaign consultant George Arzt today, He confirmed the Councilman's attorneys will present their case to the Board of Elections next week. He said the printing mistake in which Gerson's address was incorrect, amounts to a "trivial error." Arzt said the rules that invalidate the voices of thousands of voters who sign petitions are "ridiculous and absurd just on the surface." Gerson submitted petitions with more than 7-thousand signatures.
Arzt said the campaign would pursue legal action if the board does not reinstate Gerson on the September primary ballot.
There are conflicting reports this morning about what's next for Councilman Alan Gerson, removed from the ballot by the NYC Elections Board. Yesterday, the board's two-member committee on "cover sheet review" reaffirmed a decision made a day earlier to disqualify Gerson due to a technical error” resulting from the printing of petitions that incorrectly listed his address. City Hall News reporter Chris Bragg caught up with Gerson last night at a fundraiser in Chinatown:
In an interview while the fundraiser was
going on behind him, Gerson said that he still officially considers
himself on the ballot until a full hearing of the Board of Elections
executive committee is conducted sometime next week. (This contradicts
the position of the Board of Elections: BoE spokeswoman Valerie Vasquez
said he was actually officially off the ballot, and this could only be
changed if the New York County Supreme Court reverses the decision.) Gerson
also responded to a statement from opposing candidate Pete Gleason
“commending” the Board of Elections decision and stating that Gerson’s
removal from the ballot typified his “shoddy work ethic.” “Pete Gleason is going to use this for political purposes,” Gerson said. “The printer made a mistake. It was a computer error.” Gerson
added that he had no regrets about trying to correct problems with his
petitions himself, rather than hiring an election lawyer do it. “An
expert should not be needed,” Gerson said, saying that he had used all
volunteers to collect over 7,000 signatures, while other candidates
paid signature gatherers. “That’s wrong.”
Earlier, Gerson's campaign consultant, George Arzt, told City Hall News, that he would take legal
action against the board if he was not reinstated.The Gotham Gazette is reporting that a Board of Elections appeal hearing will take place on Monday.
The Village Voice speculates that Gleason and Margaret Chin would have the most to gain if Gerson does not get back on the ballot.
Gerson is running for a third term, made possible by the extension of term limits. The Democratic Primary is September 15th.
We just received word from owner Patricia Fairhurst that she will be moving the famed Guss’ Pickles to Brooklyn. Guss’ is often included as a site of interest in tours of the Lower East Side and has been in the neighborhood since 1920. Patricia says she’s running out of room and can’t afford rent for a bigger space in the neighborhood since it’s changed so much. When the city put a Muni Meter directly in front of her pickle barrels, blocking customers’ access, it was the last straw.
You can hear more from Patricia in our video posted here.
Hudson Street Papers moved from the West Village to Orchard Street four years ago.
We were concerned to see a nice neighborhood business like Hudson Street Papers, on Orchard and Stanton, close shop a few weeks ago. It seems there are more and more "For Rent" signs in store fronts on the Lower East Side. When owner Scott Brush told Racked "the Lower East Side is bad news", we asked him how he came to this realization and why he had to close. Here is his response:
The simple reason for closing my store was a lack of business. I was
there for 4 years and business never really picked up. Starting last
fall business began slowing even more and Christmas season was
horrible. The lack of foot traffic was a major problem. Tourists shopped,
and I did have some good regular local customers. But my business
relies on local shoppers and foot traffic. I often had people from the
neighborhood come in and ask how long I had been there, even after 4
years! And these were people who lived around the corner! I found that
longtime residents didn't come in because they thought I would be too
expensive, younger residents were too broke or transient (many
customers moved to Brooklyn for larger apt's at cheaper rent), and the
newer more "upscale" residents didn't shop the neighborhood. My block
was a ghost town after 6p.m. because most of the older shops closed
early. I had high hopes for the neighborhood, every new building was
supposed to bring the change everyone was looking for. I found that
that never materialized. I did meet some great people though, made some
new friends and still visit often. I wish luck to my fellow shop owners.
The Lo-Down will have on-going coverage of economic woes for small businesses on the Lower East Side and the saga of a neighborhood in transition. We wish you the best of luck in future endeavors, Scott.
A coalition of community groups is stepping in to defend the beautification of the Allen and Pike Street corridors below Delancey Street. Led by the LES Business Improvement District, the coalition is responding to concerns raised about the project during a CB3 committee meeting. The issue is expected to come up again at tonight's full Community Board 3 meeting.
The city is making improvements to the center islands on both streets, as well as reconfiguring bike lanes and making other changes. In recent weeks, questions have been raised about how traffic will be re-routed, whether the modifications will snarl automobile traffic on Allen Street and whether the new bike lane configuration is safe.
The Lower East Side BID has prepared a document, responding to the community concerns. You can read it after the jump. They have also been circulating a petition, to be presented this evening.
Tonight's meeting begins at 630pm, at IS 131, 100 Hester Street. More information on CB3's web site.
City Hall News is reporting that City Councilman Alan Gerson has been kicked off the September Primary ballot, due to an error made on his petitions. Here is the full text of the article by reporter Chris Bragg:
Council Member Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan) has been kicked off
the ballot for a technical error involving the misprinting of one of his
petitions, the New York City Board of Elections has confirmed.
The Board of Elections will hold a hearing at 1:30 p.m.
today to decide whether he will be reinstated. Gerson’s legal representation
met with lawyers for the Board of Elections this morning to discuss the case.
The printer that published Gerson’s petitions apparently
committed an error that incorrectly listed Gerson’s address as 1505
LaGuardia Place, rather than his actual address, 505
LaGuardia Place, in a petition book that contained
approximately 1,000 of his signatures. Gerson attempted to cure the error this
weekend, but tried to do so without the assistance of an attorney. He tried to
cross the extra “1” in the address off the petitions, but the board was not
satisfied, according to Gerson campaign consultant George Arzt.
Arzt said that Gerson had submitted over 7,000 signatures
and expressed confidence that the incumbent, whose signatures had not been
challenged by any of the other candidates in the race, would be reinstated to
the ballot.
If he is not reinstated, Arzt said, Gerson would file legal
action against the board.
“This would never stand up in court,” Arzt said. “This
really shows the need to simplify the board’s arcane rules.”
Artz, who also consults for Council Member and Public
Advocate candidate Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn), will also find out at the hearing
today whether he is reinstated over a technical error.
One source who had looked at both candidates’ petitions,
however, said they believed the errors Gerson had made were much more serious
than the error committed by a de Blasio attorney, who mislabled the number of
petitions de Blasio had submitted.
