Volume One, Issue 25, March 9 - 15, 2007
The Buzz
SECTION 8 THE RIGHT CHOICE?: State Senator Thomas Duane’s office sends a notice: On Thursday, March 15, at Hudson Guild at 7 p.m., they’ll be holding an informational meeting on the Section 8 Voluntary Transition Program, which the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) plans to offer the residents of its 21 City and State developments, including Chelsea Houses (Fulton and Elliot Houses already receive federal funds). The scuttlebutt, from Aliya Feldman in Duane’s office, is that NYCHA, whose annual operating deficit runs at around $60 million, has applied to enter the federal Section 8 program to help it close the gap, and is asking residents to apply even though the federal government hasn’t decided to accept them. If it does, Chelsea House residents would be able to choose whether or not to enter the program, which would then either change all the rules of their lease with NYCHA, or enable them to leave NYCHA for a Section-8-eligible apartment somewhere else. At the event, joining Senator Duane will be Judith Goldiner of the Legal Aid Society and Jackie Burger of the Community Service Society, both of whom, according to Feldman, are deeply suspicious of the city’s desire to get into the Section 8 system. Look in the March 23 Chelsea Now for a fuller report on what happened, and on what Duane’s office is also proposing to help NYCHA out of its budget crunch.
IT’S BIGGER, AND IT’S FEDERAL: The New York State Board for Historic Preservation, in Albany, will meet next Friday, March 16 to consider placing the Gansevoort Market District on the Federal Register of Historic Places. Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, points out that GVSP’s proposed district, which has been about four years in the making, is considerably larger than the Gansevoort District approved by the City Council in 2003: While the City-designated area runs from the north side of 14th Street to south of Gansevoort, from West Street to Hudson Street, the proposed federal designation would be 50 percent larger: from 16th Street (both sides) all the way down to Horatio Street. “We’re very optimistic,” Berman told us by phone on Thursday. The formal application was about three months ago, he said: “We made our case, and we think the Board will act appropriately.”
FROM TWIN DONUT TO “DOUGH DOYEN”: James Lahey, of Sullivan Street Bakery on West 47th St., known to millions for letting his “No-Knead Bread” recipe be published in the New York Times, has just gotten a 10-year lease on the Penn South-owned corner of 24th Street and Ninth Avenue, says Penn South general manager Brendan Keany. The corner has a checkered history: The former Heartland Café, which never did well, gave way to one of those combination Twin Donut/sushi places. When Lahey, dubbed a “dough doyen” by New York Magazine, approached Penn South, said Keany, “we extended the lease to 2017.” Lahey didn’t want to discuss his plans, but our sources tell us they involve beer and wine, Italian-style thin-crust pizza (no slices—fold it!), and a top architect who will further continue Chelsea’s journey from low-rent (Twin Donut) to soigné. (An art gallery, from Pennsylvania curator Jeffrey Parias, is moving into Building 240, half a block away.)
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