I saw this on the Villager website today

E-Pirates raid Union Square:
The e-mail purporting to be from the Union Square Partnership business improvement district on Monday announced that the Partnership would drop efforts to convert the Union Square Park pavilion into an upscale restaurant and said the BID would reorganize as a “community improvement district” (CID) with Geoffrey Croft and Jack Taylor, persistent opponents of the Union Square north-end reconstruction, as board members. Of course, it was all a hoax — perpetrated by Reverend Billy, his Church of Stop Shopping and others who also put a hoax Web site online complete with the (pirated) Partnership logo. Lee Silberstein, a BID spokesperson, responded, “It’s unfortunate that the Union Square BID name was pirated to spread irresponsible and fraudulent misinformation about the north-end renovation project. U.S.P. is working to correct the abuse of technology and continues to work with its partners at the Department of Parks to fully complete the renovation.”

My ancestors were pirates and came to New York City more than two hundred years ago with money they got from the English royals for some wicked pirating against the Portuguese so let it be known I am well proud to be called a Pirate but please! The Church of Stop Shopping didn’t PIRATE anything, the Union Square Partnership just never bothered to register their own domain name. Just like they forgot to ask the State legislature to approve the privatization of our public space for their own political and financial gain. Visit the site. Union Square Partnership.

News just in, Starbucks announces it will close at least 600 stores in the United States! more

Execs assure us that they are only ones that have another close by. My thoughts go to their many workers, hope they don’t feel too much hurt and that their next gig is not at a union busting shop.

Join us at Union Square this Wednesday for our regular first amendathon, then we move over to the park for some really fun games like Bobbing for The Big Apple, Capture The Capitalist and Push Back the Privatizer. Watermelon, auctions, and the mystic circle of the First Amendment. Be There. NC corner of the park between 5-6 and around Abe Lincoln in the center of the park from 6-7.

Last Nights Scoping Meeting at Lincoln High was a triumphant beginning to an uprising. Community driven planning will prevail! Coney Island will be SAVED. I am back on land and will give a further update a little bit later. Thank You for all your support during the mermaid hunger strike.

I have been preparing all week for this adventure at Coney Island, sewing and finding and dreaming and I really have too much to do. I am eating pizza for breakfast in preparation for the fast, trying to find last minute items like a bed for the window and a good book to read.

If I don’t see you tomorrow I will see you Tuesday June 24th at 6 pm at the Scoping Meeting, Lincoln High School, 2800 Ocean Parkway.

Don’t miss Monica reprising her role as the Starbucks Mermaid!

Halloween Parade, Fred Askew

Begin the countdown to the Mermaid Parade! To the magic of the boardwalk and hot sand and teenage girls with water balloons, to pearls and shells and seahorses and old cars and marching bands. To elaborate hair and indescribable water babies.

I used to spend Christmas Day on Coney Island, in the cold with the Russians and their chess boards, looking for gouged messages on the railing of the boardwalk, johhny and iris forever, i want to turn you upside down,
and then a simple question why with no punctuation. When I was there Friday the exuberant young ones were writing all over eachother’s bodies, signing their names in magic markers, some girls had twenty signatures crowded on their bellies.

For a good time, come see 55 versions of disaster at ATLANTIC GALLERY!

The CATASTROPHE exhibition begins with a combustible opening Tuesday, June 17th from 6pm-8pm. Plus, on Wednesday, July 2nd from 6pm-8pm Atlantic will host special mid-show event: THE FOUR PANELISTS OF THE APOCALYPSE! including guests James Howard Kunstler and No Impact Man.

The Atlantic Gallery is at 135 W 29th, Suite 601
Show goes until July 17th–not to miss,
The Atlantic is an artists cooperative, this show is curated by friend of the church Pamela Talese.

District 2 Council Member Rosie Mendez released this statement in her folksy newsletter today:

Rosie Continues to Support Renovations at Union Square Park: On June 5, Rosie spoke to a group of protestors restating her position on the renovation of the north end of Union Square Park. Rosie came to support the current plan when it was changed to include a playground triple the size of the two that existed, reduced the size of the space which had been used by a restaurant for nearly 15 years, and included a plan which would renovate the pavilion, where the restaurant would be relocated, and allow it to be used for free public events 6 months out of the year.

Rosie explained that she supports the plan after receiving repeated assurances that the renovation will not take away from people’s ability to hold public rallies in the north end of Union Square Park. “If there are ever any attempts to curb this right, I will fight them strenuously” she told protestors last Friday. She then noted to the crowd that the renovation includes several upgrades to the Greenmarket, including watering and electrical system improvements that will eliminate the need for environmentally harmful generators, and that the Greenmarket vendors and farmers have expressed their support for the plan. The plan also makes the playground and pavilion fully accessible, adds 53 new trees to the park, and slightly extends the north plaza into the roadbed of 17th street.

It is very disappointing that Rosie continues to spin like this. The plan for a restaurant actually decreases play space for children by 2000 sq. feet, she also uses tricky language like “relocate the restaurant” which doesn’t address whatsoever the request by the community that the pavilion be returned to its original use as an assembly and gathering area for children and adults alike. She doesn’t say which 6 months it will be available, probably the cold dark ones when the pavilion will no doubt turn out to be “impossible to heat”. She doesn’t mention that the repeated “assurances” she received are from an extra legal government body known as the Union Square Partnership, who so far are not accountable to anyone. She doesn’t mention that 53 saplings have absolutely nothing in common with the 80 year old trees killed three weeks ago. She forgets that the Greenmarket and farmers are not wholly supportive of the plan, in fact the founder of the Greenmarket Mr. Benepe has had a terrible falling out with his son parks commissioner Adrian Benepe over the restaurant and renovation. She claims accessibility but it turns out the design includes nothing that a disabled child can actually interact with and if ALL OF THAT isn’t bad enough read closely for her strongly derisive point that a community of 400 people who came out to express their passionate love of Union Square are merely “protestors”.

Rosie we wish you would fight strenuously NOW, we wish you would disclose the real logic behind your decision to support the restaurant, because so far your reasoning just doesn’t add up.

read the actual letter she presented at our big first amendathon last week

Friends! Call Governor Paterson, he set up a call line to determine whether he has sufficient support to recognize legal, same sex marriages from other states and countries. So please do call it is easy and takes less than one minute.

1. Call 518 474 8390
2. Say you support the Governor’s directive
3. Tell them your zip code
4. Tell your friends and family upstate to do it

Marriage is an act of faith and courage and love , and remember! love is the defier of all laws (emma goldman )

Over the last few days I’ve heard people say things like this: “but didn’t the community go for the restaurant?” “Isn’t that what the community wanted?” ” Are you actually working with the Union Square Community?”

I want to put the question to you, What do you think the “community” of Union Square Park is? Does it belong to a certain neighborhood or nearby residents? Does it belong to the thousands of people a day who pass through it? Does it belong to the artist vendors? Does it belong to the B-boys and the brass bands? Does it belong to the children who play in it? The activists who gather there? Does it belong the the farmers? The born agains? The animal adoption folks? The historians? The history itself?

If you had to put together a governing body for Union Square who would NEED to be represented, and what groups and, or individuals would get a seat at the table?

Discuss.