Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Cyclists stand in silence after adorning a painted-white “ghost bike” with flowers on Broadway and 36th St. last week, where Queens resident Alvaro Olson, 54, was struck and killed by a truck a week earlier. On Wednesday, the NYC Street Memorial Project held a memorial ride for two cyclists killed on the same day last month, marking a path from Union Square to the site of Olson’s death. The procession then moved to Lower East Side, where the ceremony was repeated for Jian-Lan Zhang, 55, who was struck and killed there by a delivery truck on April 16.

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Community drives dialogue of new No. 1 concern: Traffic
BY Chris Lombardi
On Wednesday night, Dee Demuse sat in the third row of seats at the Church of the Holy Cross on 42nd St., prepared to speak her mind about one thing in particular: not getting run over by charter buses.

Whitney’s new Downtown digs a return to its roots
BY Albert Amateau
The Whitney Museum of American Art on Wednesday presented the design for a new Whitney branch to be built next year at the foot of the High Line in the Meatpacking District.

Pinning at FIT, and not for hem lines
BY Jefferson Siegel
The Educational Opportunity Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which provides support and expanded services to students who seek higher education despite long-term socioeconomic challenges, inducted its first members into the Epsilon Kappa Chapter of the Chi Alpha Epsilon National Honor Society last Friday in Chelsea.

Chelsea’s Hudson Riv. Pk. section buoyed by $21 million
BY Patrick Hedlund
Community Board 4 member Robert Trentlyon has a running joke about his years of work on the Hudson River Park, the stretch of waterfront he’s been advocating for the past two decades. In it, he compares himself to one of the main characters in John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men,” who longs of one day tending to his own rabbit farm.

Ex-inmates further their Fortunes Off Broadway
BY Chris Lombardi
Cassimiro “Caz” Torres, a thirtysomething man with substantial muscles bulging from under his black T-shirt, stood up Tuesday night, hot under the lights of the New World Stage theatre in Clinton. “I am a husband, and father, and an employee,” Torres said, letting a slow smile grow on his face. “And I am a taxpayer,” he added.

West Siders get area primer, en español
BY Jefferson Siegel
Four prominent elected officials held a housing forum for West Side residents on Saturday covering a variety of issues facing the area’s vibrant Latino and immigrant population—marking the first-ever local forum to be conducted entirely in Spanish.

Through changes, The Villager is still going strong
The Villager, this publication’s forebear and one of the first local newspapers to put the focus on the burgeoning West Side, celebrated its 75th anniversary this week. Here, we look back on our weekly sister publication, which helped birth Chelsea Now and its reputation for committed community journalism.

City must show restraint on pavilion, trees, W.C.
BY Albert Amateau
The city can now go ahead with the renovation of Union Square’s north-end plaza, but work on the pavilion where the city plans to put a seasonal restaurant is still on hold, according to a ruling on Monday by State Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon.

Protesting ‘aborcide’ in Union Square
BY Jefferson Siegel
Coinciding with what they perceive as an ongoing assault on trees in local parks, advocates celebrated Arbor Day in Union Square last Friday by protesting the loss of city trees amid the administration’s pledge to plant a million more in the coming years.

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Chelsea: Arts & Lifestyles

Finding the truth and then some
BY WILL McKINLEY
Janice Erlbaum is a lot of things, but she’s no liar.

Koch on Film

Art of the artificial
BY Stephanie Buhmann
Over the past 40 years, Lynn Hershman Leeson has explored empowerment and freedom of speech in a wide range of media, including photography, film, sculpture, performance, and installation.