Mr. Cumming, Take Down That Wall

Sarah Schulman is not happy with Alan Cumming. The long-time East Village author and activist recently posted on her Facebook page about the actor's construction of a den atop his East 9th Street townhouse, right next to Sarah's building:



I talked to Sarah about the situation.

"When we all heard that Alan Cumming and his husband, Grant Shaffer, were moving next door we were glad because they had reputations as good guys. We heard on the street that they were planning to remodel within the framework of the building's structure."

But that's not what they're doing.

"They just bricked up our hallway windows. This is an old tenement building and these hallway windows provided light and air for 22 small apartments. They created a breeze."


photo via No 7-Eleven

Sarah doesn't understand how a guy who shows up for East Village rallies, like the ones against 7-Eleven, could do something like this to his neighbors. "Why would you want to hurt the people you're going to be living next to?" she wonders. It's the kind of question she astutely grapples with in her book The Gentrification of the Mind.

To Mr. Cumming, Sarah says, "Take down the wall. Take down the den. Sit in a chair on the roof like everybody else and be a part of the community. If you want to live in a gated community, move to Rodeo Drive."