Daily Archives: March 18, 2016

ST neighbors producing mob comedy

Stuyvesant Town resident Ben van Bergen has penned the screenplay for the film which Tom Nonnon is producing. As of this week, the pair are nearly done crowd-sourcing the funds to market it. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

Stuyvesant Town resident Ben van Bergen has penned the screenplay for the film which Tom Nonnon is producing. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

Two Stuyvesant Town actors whose credits include parts for policemen and priests, can now add mobsters to their resumes, this time as producer and writer of a film about two wise guys on the run from a dirty debt they can’t pay.

Longtime neighbors Tom Nonnon (producer) and Ben van Bergen (who wrote the screenplay) spent the past year working on the bare-bones budget flick, a dark comedy called “Mob Fathers: Permanent Rehab.”

The story focuses on two career criminals who end up owing $200,000 to a foreign loan shark.

“So,” said van Bergen, “they have to find a place to hide.” The pair then decide to hide out in a church, only to discover that the priests there have their own problems — specifically gambling debts. The two lead characters, Jack and Mack, think they’re just disguising themselves as clergy men, but end up finding themselves in an unexpected role.

“They still have to earn and in doing so, they go to people who are really bad and give those people a chance — change your ways or die,” said van Bergen.

He added that the film will be different from others in the mafia movie genre in that the story is dialogue-driven, centered more around the friendship between the two men than the expected whack-a-mole type violence. (Though there is definitely some of that.)

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Blackstone looking at ways to reduce noise

The sports tent at Playground 11 a.ka. The Courts at Stuy Town (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

The sports tent at Playground 11 a.ka. The Courts at Stuy Town (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

With noise from neighbors’ parties to the sounds of equipment used for maintenance work echoing through Stuyvesant Town being a top tenant concern, Blackstone has been mulling a number of ideas for taking the volume down a notch.

In one example, to cut down on noise from the large tent at Playground 11 from basketball games and other sports played inside, Blackstone is considering replacing it with two smaller tents in different playgrounds next year. Management’s also looking into a new kind of cart for transporting garbage around the property that won’t make as much noise as the kind currently used when wheeled around.

These ideas were mentioned in a letter written by ST/PCV General Manager Rick Hayduk to a tenant in response to a letter she sent him on Monday airing her concerns about ongoing noise. (Both letters were passed on to Town & Village by their respective authors.)

In the original letter, the resident, who later asked that her name not be published, ticked off a list of chronic disturbances, from the tent to barking dogs to the shouting of employees as they worked.

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Stuy Town Associated owner’s Chelsea store is facing closure

Customers and elected officials attend a rally in support of the supermarket at West 14th Street. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

Customers and elected officials attend a rally in support of the supermarket at West 14th Street. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Residents of Chelsea and Greenwich Village, along with local elected officials, this past Sunday protested the impending closure of an Associated Supermarket on West 14th, which is run by the same owners as the Stuyvesant Town Associated.

The store, located at 255 West 14th Street near Eighth Avenue, is in the tenth year of a 15-year lease but principal owner Joseph Falzon said it will likely be forced to close in May because of a stipulation that says the rent can be increased to market value in the last five years of the lease.

It was previously reported that the rent would be increased to $200,000 and although the actual increase would be half that at $100,000, it is still substantially more than the store’s current rent of $32,000.

“Even if we came to an agreement, the rent can’t be much more than what it is now anyway or we won’t survive,” Falzon said.

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