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THE VILLAGE CHOICE - Volume 1, Issue 15
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Manhattan Libertarian Party
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Aug 16, 2002 11:03 PDT
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THE VILLAGE CHOICE
A Weekly Rundown of News, Views and Events Affecting Freedom in NYC
Volume 1, Issue 15 * August 16, 2002
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is brought to you by the Manhattan Libertarian Party.
http://www.manhattanlp.org
In this issue:
* The government school system’s dope-pushing monopoly!
* Gay marriages coming to NYC!
* Annoying politicians vs. annoying cell phones!
* Your calendar of upcoming pro-freedom events!
* Much more!
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* News Bites *
The Three R’s: Readin’, Ritin’ and Ritalin
Outgoing Schools Chancellor Harold Levy has ordered his administrators
to investigate charges that city educators are pressuring parents into
medicating their children with psychiatric drugs. Levy said he was
unaware of the widespread complaints from parents until it was brought
to his attention by The Post's ongoing reports of parents' horror
stories. Levy said he plans to notify top school brass that such
coercion tactics are inappropriate. Perhaps some street-level drug
dealers could file an antitrust suit against the government schools for
unfair competition.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/54427.htm
New York City Will Recognize Gay Marriages
The City Council voted Thursday to recognize gay marriages from other
jurisdictions. “We voted to make it so that people who are registered
domestic partners, members of civil unions or gay marriages from other
jurisdictions, will now be recognized as registered New York City
domestic partners,” said Council Member Christine Quinn, who
co-sponsored the bill. “I think it's a big deal symbolically because
it's New York kind of going as far as we can in relationship law,” Quinn
said. “It's also a big deal because it's New York City trying to make
relations as equal as we possibly can.”
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/16/nyc.gay.partners/index.html
Anti-Phone Pol Hops on the Ban-Wagon
Demonstrating once again the steadfast belief of politicians that
legislation is always the answer, no matter how trivial the question, a
new City Council proposal would make it illegal to gab on cell phones
during plays, concerts or movies. The bill would set a fine of $50 for
using cell phones in “places of public performance” except in an
emergency, and it would include museums and libraries. Its sponsor,
Philip Reed of Harlem, appears to be jumping on the “ban-wagon” led by
Bloomberg's sweeping proposal in recent days to ban smoking in bars,
offices and outdoor cafes.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-cell0814.story?
Condemnation Threat Still Looms for Holtzmans
The hopes of a tenement's owners remain alive, in spite of a museum's
effort to replace them with ghosts. Louis Holtzman and his wife, Mimi,
live at 99 Orchard Street, a 138-year-old tenement with a dozen
apartments, that his grandfather bought in 1910. But for the last year,
his next-door neighbor, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, has been
trying to take over his building through the powers of eminent domain.
The paradoxical situation — a museum devoted to tenements seeking to
displace residents of a tenement — has not been lost on observers. The
issue became less immediate when the Empire State Development
Corporation, the state agency entrusted with weighing condemnation
against the public good, allowed the application to lapse on May 8
without any comment. But Mr. Holtzman labeled that development a
“shallow victory,” giving him and his tenants only a reprieve from
condemnation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/11/nyregion/11TENE.html
Park Fees Violate First Amendment
Charging bicyclists, AIDS activists, boy scouts and cancer survivors
thousands of dollars to hold corporate-sponsored events in city parks is
unconstitutional, a federal judge declared yesterday. Manhattan Federal
Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the Parks Department's fee
policy violated free-speech guarantees. Transportation Alternatives, a
nonprofit group, sued the Parks Department last year after being forced
to pay $6,000 to hold its annual 100-mile bike tour in Central Park. If
no corporate sponsorship had been involved, Transportation Alternatives
would have paid $25 - the standard fee the department charges for events
involving more than 20 people.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/11252p-10657c.html
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* Rant of the Week *
BOYCOTT THE CREEPS
by Robert Levin
In too many of New York's stores these days, trying to negotiate the
most elementary of transactions with personnel who by all appearances
were clients of the CUNY placement service is to subject yourself to a
degree of torture the proverbial Turkish prison warden would be loathe
to inflict. But it's stores where the salespeople are trained to pounce
and hover, and where the security guards greet you at the door like they
haven't seen you since you did hard time together, that display the most
reckless faith in my medication. Betraying both a desperation and a
guiltiness about something, they automatically lose any prospect of
getting my business.
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* Upcoming Events *
Sunday, August 18, 2:00 p.m.
Surveillance Camera Outdoor Walking Tour of the Lower East Side
Intro to emerging surveillance society & selection of cameras surveying
public space.
Meet at the northeast corner of Houston and Avenue D
http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html
Monday, August 19, 7:00 p.m.
SCOPE-NYC meeting
Monthly meeting of the New York City affiliate of the Shooters'
Committee on Political Education, a pro-RKBA organization.
Grand Saloon, 158 East 23rd Street
http://scopeny.org
Wednesday, August 21, 6:30 p.m.
National Day of Protest meeting
Kickoff meeting for the National Day of Protest to Stop Police
Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation on October
22, 2002
Center for Constitutional Rights, 666 Broadway, 6th Floor
http://www.geocities.com/oct22ny
Wednesday, August 21, 7:00 p.m.
Charter Revision Commission public hearing
Voice you opinion on the mayor’s proposed changes to the city charter.
Adam Clayton Powell Building, 163 West 125th Street, 8th floor, room A
http://www.nyc.gov/html/charter/home.html
Thursday, August 22, 7:30 p.m.
Repeal the PATRIOT Act meeting
Planning session for local grassroots activists
419 West 34th Street, first floor
http://www.shamon.com/repeal/index.htm
Friday, August 23, 4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Rally to Remember Murdered Anarchists
Honor Sacco & Vanzetti on the 75th anniversary of their judicial murder.
Union Square South Plaza at 14th Street
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-nyc/2002-August/010009.html
Wednesday, September 18, 7:00 p.m.
Manhattan Libertarian Party monthly meeting
Guest speaker from the Rent Stabilization Association
(http://www.rsanyc.com)
Free admission; optional buffet and cash bar
Kennedy's Restaurant, 327 West 57th Street
http://www.manhattanlp.org
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* News tips, rants and events wanted! *
Help us improve THE VILLAGE CHOICE. Send news bites, rants and event
announcements to village-@manhattanlp.org. Please include a web
link whenever possible.
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is edited by Jim Lesczynski.
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If you're offended by anything in this newsletter, you're obviously a
humorless socialist of either the right-wing or left-wing variety.
See you next week!
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