Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel

News
Education and traffic are issues in Senate primary
By Josh Rogers
When Martin Connor was first elected to the State Senate 30 years ago, his current challenger wasn’t even born. In many ways, this year’s Democratic primary is a study in contrasts — the Albany veteran versus the young challenger with new ideas.

Still nothing new on New School’s big new building
By Gabriel Zucker
Central Village residents were in panic mode earlier this year when they learned that The New School would be applying for zoning variances for an enormous — by Village standards — new campus center as early as this summer. But as August nears and the school still has not finalized designs for the building at 14th St. and Fifth Ave., opponents of the project are taking a cautious breather.

Crappy idea or fun public art? Artist rolls dice at Astor Place
By Gabriel Zucker
Twenty-five years ago, Arnie Charnick took a look at “The Alamo” sculpture on Astor Place and saw more than one large black cube. He saw two dice.

Hoping that Joe Gould’s haunt won’t become history
By Gabriel Zucker
Rising rents felled another fabled Village landmark in May, when the Minetta Tavern was bought by Keith McNally, the prolific restaurateur of Pastis, Balthazar and Morandi fame. Minetta Tavern, at the corner of MacDougal St. and Minetta Lane, will become McNally’s fourth restaurant when it reopens in November.

Rebuild plan for shul fuels debate in congregation
By Albert Amateau
The board of a physically rundown E. Sixth St. synagogue built in 1910 voted earlier this month to replace it with a new six-story residential building that would also contain a synagogue.

They’ll be having some fun on Tribeca’s boardwalk
By Albert Amateau
The threatening rain held off and a crowd of more than 200 neighbors, park advocates and officials gathered on Wednesday morning to celebrate the opening of the first part of the Hudson River Park’s Tribeca section.

Twenty years to ‘Life’
By Will McKinley
“Did you find him to be annoying, arrogant and pompous?” a female audience member asked her male companion, following a recent performance of James Braly’s “Life in a Marital Institution” at the SoHo Playhouse.

Housing of the future
By Ian Volner
What do we talk about when we talk about prefab? In certain quarters, the word is in fairly poor odor, and no wonder: doomed modernist one-offs; cynical, shabby dingbats; undifferentiated suburban ramblers; prefab’s not a style, and it hasn’t succeeded as an ethic, despite the efforts of forward-thinking architects since at least the 1920s. In those pioneer days, the problem of prefabricated, mass-produced housing was that there wasn’t nearly enough of it.

Elevated cinema
By Leonard Quard
Now in its third season, Movie Nights On The Elevated Acre takes place every Tuesday in August, starting at sundown between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The Elevated Acre is a rooftop plaza offering stunning views of the East River, the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade, Red Hook, and the old Ferry Terminal. A seven-leveled concrete amphitheater with a sloping, lushly landscaped garden, the Acre, like the selection of movies screened this summer, is imaginatively conceived.