The war in Iraq is far away but another battle stirs on the home front: This morning’s Post informs us that a portion of the West Village is under siege, having been taken over by a “military presence” that is “disruptive, intrusive and totally disrespectful.” In front of a certain West 13th Street townhouse, for instance:
A block resident told us two giant GMC Denali trucks are parked outside the townhouse every night, with hired muscle who keep the engines idling for hours at a time.
Worse, these beefy defense contractors have taking to curbing residents’ freedoms, “rousting them … from their perches on the brownstone’s stoop” in order to protect their charges, the economically valuable but culturally controversial assets known as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, whilst they are “piling out of their gas guzzlers in their little club outfits.”
To be sure, behavior like this is nothing new. Celebrities have been slowly but surely taking over the West Village for a long time. But “Plenty of other celebrities around this block are good neighbors,” the block resident told the Post.”[Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler, Gisele Bündchen and Julianne Moore] blend in with the neighborhood — but these two are invaders.”
Indeed, as the number of celebrities in the area grows, tensions between the two tribes — the famous, and the regular people — appear to be on the rise. “You would think there was a government operation going on,” the resident mused to the Post. And perhaps there is: Rumor has it, it’s only a matter of time before someone declares the entire West Village a Green Zone.
Double Trouble for Nabe [NYP]
