BLEW IT ON FARTER: Wow, did
the Post’s Page Six get caught with its
pants down on the Villager Serial Farter
story, or what? This Wednesday the
famous celebrity gossip page fi nally got
wind of the story — which The Villager
broke (at least, in print), months
ago back in April in an article by Gabe
Herman. And an article by Villager
reporter Sydney Pereira then revealed
the identity of the Serial Farter the very
next month. He’s none other than Phil
Boucher, a thirtysomething drummer
in a “dormant” rock band who makes
food deliveries to pay the bills. During
down times on his day job, he likes to
hang around Washington Square Park
and prank people with his “Pooter,” a
simple-yet-startling rubber squeeze toy
that sells for $12.95, more technically
known as “The Artifi cial Flatulence
Maker.” He’s been doing it for years in
cities all over the country. But cutting
the cheese locally in Washington Square
is his fave. He came up and introduced
himself to Pereira when she was standing
by the arch reporting on the plight
of Johan Figueroa González, the park’s
former “Living Statue.” Heck, Boucher
subsequently even “outed” himself with
a video of himself in action. Hey, Page
Six, what we’re trying to say is, this
story is already, so to speak, in the can!
We totally fl ushed it out, er...fl eshed it
out. Of course, it was — who else? —
Erik Bottcher, Council Speaker Corey
Johnson’s intrepid chief of staff, who
fi rst tipped us off to the elusive seeming
gas-passer. Bottcher, who clearly has a
nose for news, had spied reports about
the mysterious Village (Fart) Ripper on
Nextdoor, a neighborhood messaging
app. Asked for comment on Page Six’s
bringing up the rear — and how! — on
this one, Bottcher told us, in an offi cial
statement, “Smells rotten. They’ve really
‘blown’ it! Villagers know who really
‘broke’ the story!” Frankly, all we can
say about this whole thing is — Pfffff!
L OF A MEETING: Putting all that
behind us, as it were...in much more
serious news, let’s turn to the L shutdown
chaos. So far, the community
lawsuit fi led over the L subway shutdown
scheme’s so-called “alternate service
plan” — i.e., the “mitigation plan”
— has already resulted in the M.T.A.’s
pledge to add a handicap-accessible elevator
at Sixth Ave. and 14th St., and the
Department of Transportation’s seemingly
backing away from a two-way
crosstown bike lane on 13th St. But
the biggest result, of course, as attorney
Arthur Schwartz will say, is that
the two agencies fi nally agreed to do an
environmental assessment, or E.A., for
the project. That study could lead to an
even-lengthier environmental impact
statement, or E.I.S., being required.
The two agencies are downplaying the
E.A. as a “supplemental” study, but,
as Schwartz notes, they basically did
hardly anything on this front prior to
the lawsuit. Anyway, along with doing
the E.A., a public hearing is also a must.
That hearing will be held Mon., Aug.
6, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, 2
Broadway, 20th fl oor. Members of the
public wishing to comment must register
on the M.T.A. Web site in advance
by 7 p.m. on Aug. 6. Written comments
may also be presented and submitted at
the meeting. The offi cial comment period
for the E.A. is from July 20 to Aug.
19. In an e-mailed statement urging a
big turnout Monday, Paul Groncki, of
the 100 W. 16th St. Block Association,
said, “At issue is the M.T.A.’s woefully
inadequate environmental assessment
that they claim is suffi cient for them to
proceed with their redesign of 14th St.
We claim their E.A. does NOT even
come close to addressing our impacted
neighborhood’s environmental concerns.
Our lawsuit demands a much
more thorough environmental impact
study — an E.I.S. — that is required
by federal and state law. Also, in some
signifi cant news, Schwartz claimed
that the federal funding for the repair
of the L train’s Canarsie Tunnel tubes
under the East River is “on hold” now
that a genuine environmental study for
the whole project is being done. When
we asked spokespersons for D.O.T. and
the M.T.A. about that, they dismissed
it outright, saying it’s just not true. But
Schwartz sent us the relevant court
document fi led by the Federal Transportation
Administration that notes
that the money cannot be released until
the M.T.A. and F.T.A. sign off on a
“construction agreement,” which has
not happened yet. In another letter submitted
to the court, provided to us by
Schwartz, a top M.T.A. offi cial states
that if it turns out the federal funding
ultimately is not available, the city
would seek it elsewhere and forge on
with the project.
TRAVELING BAND: It turns out
the reason we couldn’t get through to
a live person at City Hall last week to
ask someone about why Mayor Bill de
Blasio hasn’t followed up on his pledge
to buy back the old P.S. 64 — or hasn’t
even spoken with any of the stakeholders
— we now fi nd out was because
everyone from the Mayor’s Offi ce was
in Staten Island last week. It was “City
Hall in Your Borough” last week, and
Staten Island was it, a spokesperson
told us. So they were only reachable
by e-mail, we were told — though they
didn’t answer us that way anyway, either.
NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS: We
hear the beleaguered Daily News will
start jacking up its price to $1.50 as of
next week. We’ll see if that really happens.
But we’re told that would possibly
be Tronc’s strategy to intentionally
doom the paper, by driving down
even more jobs, if they do eventually
shut down the print edition. READY, SET,
SUBSCRIBE!
circulation, which would somehow get
Tronc off the hook fi nancially for slashing
MAIL TO: One Metrotech Ctr North, 10th fl oor • Brooklyn, NY 11201
YES! I want to receive The Villager every week of the year.
CHECK ONE: New Subscription Renewal
(New Subscription $29•Renewal $24, for 52 weeks,
by check or credit card, will be added to your current subscription)
Name:
Address:
City: State: Zip Code:
Email: Phone:
Card Type: Visa Mastercard Amex Discover
Card Holder’s Signature:
Credit Card Number:
Exp. Date: Security Code:
call to subscribe
SOUND OFF
Write a letter to the editor
news@thevillager.com
2 August 2, 2018 TheVillager.com
link
/TheVillager.com
link