YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN
Apartment Building Caught Behaving Like a Hotel BY EILEEN STUKANE Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen residents have been alerted by the Community & Residents Protection Working Group (CRP) that across the city, landlords — using false information about the occupancy of their buildings — are applying to the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) for construction permits. Owners falsely state that their occupied buildings are “unoccupied” so that the required Tenant Protection Plan is not instatContinued on page 2
Her Chance to See Again Comes at a Cost BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC Alexandra Hobbs is grateful. That is the word she kept using while talking to Chelsea Now last week at her VISIONS at Selis Manor residence (135 23rd St. btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves). The happily married mother to two daughters — three-year-old Destiny and one-year-old Faith — Hobbs, 28, is optimistic about her latest endeavor: raising money for a medical Continued on page 6
IT’S A COMIC BOOK THING
Ultimate Marvel Marathon survivor Sean Egan dives deep into the ever-expanding universe of comic book cinema. See page 17.
Photo by Scott Stiffler
LOOK AT THOSE EYES
It’s a good thing we didn’t buy any dairy, because this eye-popping addition to W. 21st St. made us linger on the way home from Trader Joe’s. The commissioned work is by artist Lexi Bella, who told us she wanted to create something “beautiful and mysterious” for the neighborhood. There’s certainly beauty in those enigmatic eyes. As for mystery, Bella says there may be more things to come at 117-119 W. 21st St. (btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.).
Gansevoort Brick a Blight Upon the Landscape? BY YANNIC RACK Construction on a large-scale redevelopment in the landmarked Meatpacking District could start as soon as next spring, according to the developer who plans to demolish and replace some of the historic brick buildings on the south side of Gansevoort St. Concerned residents living in and near the district packed a room above the Gansevoort Market food court on the evening of Aug. 18, to hear the developer’s proposal for a row of new buildings that will reach up to eight stories and replace some of the oneand two-story market buildings that currently line the block, between Greenwich and Washington Sts. “I think Gansevoort Street has been a blight for the community,” Jared Epstein, vice president and principal at Aurora Capital Associates, told the meeting. The remark, meant to illustrate that large portions
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of the buildings on the street currently sit empty or have housed nightclubs unpopular with the community, was met with outcries from the audience. Most of the locals present were concerned, if not enraged, about the plans, which they fear would destroy the character of the neighborhood and even lower property values. In addition, the buildings are all located within the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which was designated in 2003 after years of campaigning from community activists. “This developer will have an enormous fight on their hands if they seek to move ahead with this proposal,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “This is not why we fought for years to get the
Continued on page 4
VOLUME 07, ISSUE VOLUME 27 | 07, AUGUST ISSUE27 22-|SEPTEMBER JULY 16 - 02, 22, 2015