IT’S war. Combat has broken out between some well- heeled residents of a luxury, high-rise apartment building that soars over Manhattan’s High Line, and an A-list-friendly club that some neighbors say is making their lives a living hell.
Only in this wacky turf battle, the club — which recently hosted a cussing, belligerent Diddy — is fighting back. With a lawsuit.
The nightclub, 1Oak, plans to file a $2 million defamation suit today against the very neighbors who claim the venue is keeping them up at night.
“I’m scared,” said LeCee Johnson, who lives with her husband and triplet 14-year-old girls next to 1Oak, and is named in the lawsuit as one of the complainers.
“Now I understand how they get away with this.”
But 1Oak co-owner Scott Sartiano told me he’s sick and tired of a handful of whiners who are bent on shutting down a legitimate business.
“This is a smear campaign against 1Oak,” he said. “I’m not asking for anything except the right to do business.
“I don’t think the value of your condo should have an effect on the operations of a community!”
How the devil did something like this happen on the newly fashionable streets of Chelsea?
It started when developers built the Caledonia apartment building, which towers above the western edge of West 17th Street, next door to a building for those with moderate incomes. But luxury and moderate living bumped up against the A-list, as New York rapidly degenerated into part of Hollywood East.
The battle between the Caledonia and 1Oak hit a high point during Fashion Week last month, when spotlights were erected to herald the arrival of the likes of Diddy at the Video Music Awards’ after-party at the club.
The rapper was caught on video amid a huge crush of humanity, calling a cop a “motherf – – -er.” This, after the cop asked Diddy to keep moving.
Ann Fredlin bought an apartment on the 20th floor of the Caledonia to share with partner Libby Friedman a couple of years ago for the relatively low price of $1.375 million.
“The views, everything is spectacular,” said Fredlin.
“The noise is unimaginable,” she added. “Last night at 3 a.m., limos were parked on each side. Crowds were streaming out of the building. Someone was smoking weed 15 feet from the door.”
Fredlin, joined by next-door neighbor Bobby Cintron, who lives with his 84-year-old mother, and Johnson, have taken their complaints to Community Board 4, as well as to the Borough President’s Office, the 10th Precinct station house and the State Liquor Authority, to no avail.
The complaints have finally been heard.
The lawsuit, filed by 1Oak lawyer Ken Sussmane, admits the club “caters to an elite clientele,” but says it “rarely allows long lines to develop outside its premises.” The suit attempts to halt “false and defamatory” attacks on the club.
The club has assembled fans like Allen Roskoff, who lives in the Caledonia, although on the side opposite the club.
“This is New York City!” he said. “If I didn’t want night life, I would have moved to Westchester. I would have moved to Bayside. I would have moved to Little Neck.”
I just wish the deep-pockets club hadn’t tried to crush local residents like bugs.
This is not a friendly way to do business.
Little piece of quiet on Jane
The score on Jane Street is Olsen Twins: 0, Neighbors: 1.
News is flying fast and furiously through Greenwich Village that the Jane Hotel, favored by a loud, A-list clientele, including chain-smoking mascots named Olsen, has shut its ballroom. Finally.
Last weekend, the hotel — epicenter of a fight between Jane Street dwellers who just want to sleep and rowdy partygoers who just want to yell — was raided by an alphabet soup of state and city agencies. Despite seven violations, the ballroom kept going for a time.
But yesterday, a sign hastily appeared on the door saying the room is shuttered at least until mid-November, as the hotel deals with “capacity” and “operational issues.” The lobby bar stays open.
Maybe it’s because the Friday night/Saturday morning raid by the city Buildings, Fire, Health and Police departments, plus the State Liquor Authority, did not calm things down on a block where neighbors are kept awake by shouting crowds. Occasionally, a used condom appears on property where kids sleep.
“It’s been a bit quieter [since the weekend], but it’s got a long way to go,” said Ben Zitomer, who lives on Jane with his wife and 5-year-old son, Michael. “You still have traffic jams. At 3 in the morning, it’s going to wake you up.”
I guess the Jane got the message at last.
Ladies who lynch spare dave
One unanswered question about l’affaire Letterman that’s driving right-thinking men and women to the corner motel is this: Where are the feminists?
The ladies of the National Organization for Women quickly condemned the other pervert of the moment, Roman Polanski.
“Powerful friends of Polanski and a scandal-hungry media are attempting to portray this as a ‘Hollywood versus Middle America’ story. But this is an example of celebrity culture gone haywire,” wrote NOW President Terry O’Neill.
A week after the Letterman scandal broke, NOW, which virtually wrote the rules against sexual harassment — but is torn by its allegiance to liberals — finally spoke up.
“Letterman . . . is a multimillion-dollar host of one of the most popular late-night shows; in that role, he wields the ultimate authority as to who gets hired, who gets fired, who gets raises, who advances and who does entry-level tasks among the ‘Late Show’ employees. As ‘the boss,’ he is responsible for setting the tone for his entire workplace — and he did that with sex,” O’Neill wrote.
No mention that pals of alleged extortionist Robert Halderman have been blasting Stephanie Birkitt as the slut responsible for the purported crime, because she bedded Letterman at the same time as her live-in beau, Halderman, as sources told me.
At least NOW hasn’t bent over backward to defend Letterman as a good feminist, as it famously did Bill Clinton.
Clock is ticking
With David Letterman’s contract now scheduled to extend through 2012, I’m instituting a Contract Countdown Clock for folks scoring at home, in keeping with Dave’s clock tracking the 150-year sentence of Bernie Madoff.
The clock will tick down until CBS takes Dave off the air, the network renews his pact, or I get bored. Days until Letterman’s contract expires: 1,181.
California guilty of Mel-feasance
Poof! Mel Gibson is no longer an anti-Semite. And I love cats.
Isn’t it great that this country has a place like California, where a jury freed OJ, a judge praised Chris Brown for admitting he beat the hell out of Rihanna, and a jurist wiped the slate clean on Mel Gibson?
A drunk, ranting Mad Max declared to cops in 2006 that he “owned Malibu,” that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and called a female cop “sugar t- -s.”
But now, the record of his drunken-driving conviction has been expunged by a judge after Mel did public-service announcements and attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
I wish they could expunge “What Women Want.”