The Buzz

WARMER THAN NEW HAMPSHIRE, MORE FUN THAN IOWA: Despite being able to say that of Chelsea, urban historian and journalist Judy Richheimer wasn’t able to get any of the major presidential candidates to attend the Chelsea Reform Democrats’ forum on Jan. 13, five days after the New Hampshire primary. Not even the fact that moderating the event will be Ronnie Eldridge, longtime City Council member and partner of New York icon Jimmy Breslin, swayed them, Richheimer told Chelsea Now on Monday. However, she added, a not-unimpressive roster of local pols was happy to stand in at the event at Hudson Guild’s Fulton Center. “Congressman Jerrold Nadler will represent Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Bill Perkins will be there for Sen. Barack Obama.” But former Sen. John Edwards will have the truly local muscle, with former Village Independent Democrats President Hal Friedman giving his closing argument. Richheimer added that the Reform Democrats called all the other Democratic candidates, but none responded, presumably because they were too busy fighting to survive the early contests. Though an aide to Gov. Bill Richardson was apparently uncommonly frank as she said no: “She said, ‘If we do badly in New Hampshire and Iowa, we’re just going to drop out,’” said Richheimer. We thought that losing might have been all the more reason to say yes, to come party with the city that never sleeps. Then again, if our choice next week was between Manhattan or Richardson’s state, Arizona (New Year’s temperature: 66 degrees Farenheit), we might say no, too.

THEIR OWN PRIVATE AUDIENCE: There we were, kicking ourselves for not having seen Community Board 4’s newsletter in time to attend a December 6 “On/Off the Record” breakfast, at which City Council Speaker Christine Quinn discussed “changing the City Council and New York.” After all, we’re talking about Chelsea’s own rep on the Council. It seemed like everyone else knew: In addition to CB 4’s newsletter and Website, the event was advertised on numerous local blogs and Websites, from seniorplanet.com to the Real Estate Law Blog. But then we looked more closely, and learned the other reason we’d missed it. The event was sponsored by a newspaper called City Hall, run by a competing news organization, and the announcement ended with “Note: This event is closed to representatives of other media.” Oh well, so much for a free and open press.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS: Chelsea Now asked a handful of community representatives to reflect on the year in Downtown real estate and make their resolutions for 2008. In the West Village, monitoring the newly announced St. Vincent’s Hospital redevelopment will be of paramount importance for Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. He also cited his organization’s push for a South Village Historic District, limiting New York University’s expansion in the Village and keeping an eye on the development of The New School’s new 14th St. building as crucial to his work in 2008. Meanwhile, State Assemblymember Deborah Glick also plans to closely watch the pace of building over the next year. She cited development that appears out of character with the community—like the Trump Soho hotel-condo, and other projects that “stand out in…an unpleasant fashion”—as reasons to strike out against Downtown’s changing skyline. “My hope would be that the overdevelopment boom that is slowly destroying the character of Downtown will slow down,” Glick said, “if not come to a grinding halt.” She noted that with the impending departure of Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, it might stem the administration’s penchant for sweeping development.