The Buzz

Volume 2, Number 6 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | November 16 - 22, 2007

The Buzz

NOW WE KNOW WHY—AT LEAST SORT OF: Jason West, of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, told us gleefully early this month that State Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman’s temporary restraining order against an illegal-hotel proprietor who owns the uptown SRO still advertised online as the “Candy Hotel” had become permanent, and that the owner cannot rent to transients after Jan. 8, 2008. We asked West what was up with the mayor’s own legislation in the issue, which we had just urged forward in an editorial. “These things take time,” West sighed, as he always does when explaining that it’s hard to placate so many diverse constituencies. But West didn’t mention that one of the “constituencies,” the Corporate Housing Providers Association, was repped by Kathleen Cudahy, a former City Council staffer and Bloomberg campaign adviser, who is now is directing an aggressive push-back campaign against such changes. We only learned this when her name was mentioned in connection with The Related Companies’ contract with the transient-room-rental outfit Furnished Quarters to rent units in some of its Battery Park City buildings.

GIBBONS HOME REPRIEVE: Fern Luskin, the art and architectural historian who is leading the charge to preserve, if not landmark, the Gibbons house at 339 W. 29th St., reports that the Department of Buildings is going to send an Intent to Revoke letter to the building’s owner for their construction permits. The news came to her from Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. As a result of a successful BSA case this summer which GVSHP participated in to challenge DOB rules on rooftop additions, the permits the agency gave for a two-story addition to the Gibbons house are no longer valid. DOB told Berman they will let the owner add one story, though it’s uncertain if the agency will make the owner apply for a new permit. Either way, said Berman, “this may open up some opportunities regarding landmarking the building, since the big impediment there was that they had these ‘valid’ outstanding permits. It definitely opens up possibilities that didn’t exist before. We’re all taking a look at this to see what it means.” Meanwhile, Luskin shudders to think how the owner could be allowed another permit: “With the builders’ and architects’ multiple deceptions on the architectural plans, their unsafe methods and their illegal heightening of the sixth story, how can the DOB possibly issue them a new permit? The builder and architect have forfeited their rights and should not be allowed to engage in any more construction on this precious building. Because the sixth story, as semi-built, does not conform to the legal height of 60 feet, it must be disassembled.”

HELPING MEXICO’S FLOODED: CECOMEX, a not-for-profit organization that operates cultural, social and business/job programs for Mexicans and other Latinos in New York City, is accepting donations for the homeless people of flooded Tabasco, Mexico, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through this Sunday, Nov. 18. With the help of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s staff and United Parcel Service (UPS) management, a tractor-trailer loaded with donated food, clothing, bottled water, medicines, blankets and other essential items was sent on Tuesday. CECOMEX is at 223 E. 116th St, between Second and Third avenues. Call 212-289-6400 or email JCECOMEX@aol.com if you want to volunteer to sort and package donations or to load the second tractor-trailer. If you prefer to electronically transfer money to the Tabasco state government, use Banamex Account # 002180010000001205. Chelsea people may also want to check with the Asociacion Tepeyac group at 251 W. 14th St., 212-633-7108.

CORRECTION: In our Oct. 26 article on the Department of Buildings ramping up inspection oversight during this latest New York City building boom, we incorrectly implied that Massey Knakal Realty Services owned the townhouse at 462 W. 25th St. featured in the article, which was cited for zoning violations and whose construction permits had been revoked by DOB. The firm, which was retained by the seller to sell the property, had nothing to do with the owner’s cited actions. We also—mea culpa!—misspelled the company’s name and stated that the townhouse had recently been “sold” for $5.5 million, when it was actually still under contract.