Building momentum:
Village Care of New York, which owns and operates the Village Nursing Home, at W. 12th and Hudson Sts., hasn’t formally sold the building, but it’s looking good that it will pretty soon. “We have a commitment from someone to buy it — but the sale has not taken place,” said Lou Ganim, V.C.N.Y. spokesperson. Ganim was constrained about what he could tell us due to a confidentiality agreement between V.C.N.Y. and the prospective buyer, but would say that the commitment came “sometime in the past year.” The nonprofit health provider is currently building a new facility at the site of a former garage it just razed at W. Houston St. between Sixth Ave. and Varick St. Once the new building is completed, Ganim said, the nursing home residents will relocate to it, the sale will be finalized, and the developer will get the existing, six-story, W. 12th St. building. The nursing home is located in the Greenwich Village Historic District, and thus protected from demolition by landmarking. Rumors are that each floor will be developed as an individual residence, but Ganim neither confirmed nor denied that. The revenue from the sale will help fund the cost of constructing the Houston St. facility. “We’re scheduled for completion of the new building in 2010 — hopefully, in the first half of 2010,” Ganim said. Whereas the nursing home currently has 200 residents, the new building, to be called the Village Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, will have just 105 residents. V.C.N.Y. will convert part of its space at 46th St. and Tenth Ave. for senior assisted-living residences, and also will help other elderly local residents to keep living in their own apartments. Previously part of the organization’s plan, first hatched four years ago, the idea of acquiring satellite sites around the Village for a number of smaller, assisted-living facilities proved unfeasible. “It just was way too expensive,” Ganim said.
Principled on park:
Parks designer George Vellonakis recently gave a small, select group of people a private tour of the newly renovated, northeast quadrant of Washington Square Park. Tobi Bergman, Community Board 2 Parks Committee chairperson, was invited, but declined the offer. He said he’ll wait to go when the rest of his Parks Committee members can also attend.
Starship candidate:
For the most part, the vendors tables in Union Square’s south plaza on Election Day were brimming with T-shirts and buttons sporting the iconic, multicolored Obama “HOPE” face by artist Shepard Fairey. A few vendors offered anti-McCain fare, like Mavewreck T-shirts. But one table had something, well, sort of out of this world: T-shirts for the Shatner Hasselhoff ’08 team, the so-called
“Sexiest White House” ticket. “Campaign manager” Conrad Oakey explained to us that William Shatner and David Hasselhoff were running — well, at least in his mind they kind of were — as independents. “I just did a second YouTube thing today,” noted Oakey, 32, an East Village Web designer and Williams College graduate, of his efforts on behalf of his “candidates.” Of course, for Shatner — Captain Kirk from “Star Trek” — who was born in Montreal, to be elected president, Canada would have to become a state, but “that happened about three weeks ago,” Oakey informed us. Oakey had Photoshopped images showing how, as president, man-of-action Shatner — in a mix of his current, butt-kicking “Boston Legal” attorney mode and Trek technology — would use teleporting and, if necessary, some muscle to “free Tibet” and “disarm North Korea.” Oakey was hawking spoof Fairey T-shirts with a multihued Shatner face a la Obama; except instead of “HOPE,” their brazen message was simply — “BALLS.” By coincidence, some random Internet surfing informed us that there are “at least 25,” recognized, spoof versions of the Fairey Obama image, ranging from the pope to Alfred E. Newman. For readers’ further information, Fairey was originally known for his Andre the Giant “OBEY” stickers, which were plastered all over Downtown street light-pole bases, where — in the spirit of interactive art — they were schpritzed by many a local dog.
Bye-bye BID:
Also on Election Day, we bumped into Aubrey Lees — former Democratic district leader and former Community Board 2 chairperson — walking her dachshunds on W. 11th St. Rocking some hot-pink Crocs, she told us she’s not thinking of getting back into politics or onto the board any time soon. “You can work on issues without being on the community board,” she stated, adding that positions like district leader are basically useless. However, one issue Lees had been involved in — trying to start up a Christopher St. business improvement district, or BID — has fizzled due to lack of political support, she said. “No one wants to touch Christopher St., which I think is a disgrace,” she said. Lees added she was particularly disappointed that Borough President Scott Stringer hadn’t gotten behind the effort. But Lees said it seems that, bit by bit, Christopher St. actually is transforming all on its own, as some nice new shops and eateries that have recently moved in attest. She excitedly noted that a Brooks Brothers store is planned at W. 10th and Bleecker Sts., and that those sort of doings just a block away will have a spillover effect, sparking change on Christopher St. Hmm…maybe the L.G.B.T. kids will soon be sporting preppy ascots and blazers as they walk down the street to the Christopher St. Pier.
