Council district 11 gets its first entry in Cliff Stanton (UPDATE)

Stanton is running for City Council.

Cliff Stanton, a Van Cortlandt Village resident who runs United Snacks (which partly owns those Nuts4Nuts street vendors), has opened a campaign committee with the Board of Elections to run for District 11. The seat will be vacated by City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, who is term limited.

Stanton is involved with the parents associations of PS 24 and Bronx High School of Science.

He's also leading the boycott of the Riverdale Review.

Ari Hoffnung, a deputy comptroller for John Liu, has a committee from races years ago (that has $76,000), but when we last spoke to him in December, he wouldn't say whether or not he will run for the seat in 2013.

Maybe ironically, Hoffnung's campaign received $180 from Stanton in 2008 that Hoffnung could use for this race.

We have been able to speak with Koppell, and he said he is unsure how involved he will be in the race, only saying that he will be retiring from public service.

We'll have updates soon, so make sure to come back for more information.

UPDATE: We spoke to Stanton over the phone, but he said he wasn't going to speak with the Riverdale Review. 

"This is not the best time to have the conversation. Frankly, I'm not going to have a whole lot to say," he said.

When asked if he would continue to boycott our newspaper, he would not say. "Listen, we have nothing to say to each other. I have nothing against you personally, OK?" he replied.

And when pressed further, he stuck to his guns. "I have nothing to say to you."

We tried to change the question, asking him what he would bring to office, but he hung up on us.

Bronx High School of Science alum protest status quo

Bronx High School of Science alumni held a protest Thursday afternoon, calling for Principal Valerie Reidy to be more open and transparent, saying it will lead to a better school. "Don't rule with an iron first," one protester said. We are going to have a full story in next week's paper, but I wanted to share the events of the today earlier than that, with some photos:

Around 50 alumni and students stood across from Bronx Science.

Chants included "Enough is enough!" and "We are not a number!"

Most of the alumni present graduated in the past few years.