YOUR WEEKLY community newspaper SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN
Beloved Bar ‘Not Going Anywhere Just Yet’ BY DENNIS LYNCH The third-generation owner of Chelsea’s Peter McManus Café has assured patrons of his family’s beloved bar that the storied watering hole isn’t facing an immediate crisis. Justin McManus said that representatives of the Renatus Group, which paid $10.5 million for the property in April, have verbally agreed to a one-year extension of his bar’s lease at its 85-year home in Chelsea. “It’s been pretty amicable and it seems like we’re going to sign a oneyear extension. Obviously it doesn’t solve our long-term problems and put us at full ease, but no, we’re not going anywhere just yet,” McManus said. Some patrons organized the “Coalition to #SaveMcManus” earlier this month when reports appeared online suggesting the bar could imminently close. Just under 1,000 people have joined since. Some members suggested an effort to landmark the 115-year-old building. Renatus has left a number of apartments in the four-story building Bar continued on p. 2
Rendering a Reality
Green space advocates, at a 2011 rally. Turn to page 4 and see what their passion project, 20th Street Park, will look like.
Photo by Jenny MacFarlane/stylishhipweddings.com
L to R: Linda Hemphill, maid of honor; bridesmaids Kimberly Kovach Allen and daughter Amelia; the bride and groom, Jennifer Dreussi Hansen and Wesley Francis Hansen; Cono Trubiano, Wes’ dad; Khadeeja Hansen, sister-in-law; John Hansen, Wes’ brother and best man.
TAKING THE PLUNGE BY RIDING THE TRAM BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC “Marriage” and “guerilla” don’t normally belong in the same sentence — but for two Penn South residents, swiping their MetroCards and staging their wedding on the Roosevelt Island Tramway made perfect sense, not to mention memories to last a lifetime. Jennifer Dreussi Hansen and Wesley Hansen recently told Chelsea Now about their Dec. 22, 2015 wedding over cheese blintzes and coffee at the Rail Line Diner (400 W. 23rd St., at Ninth Ave.). “When we decided to get married, we were going to go to City Hall — and, then, I don’t know, I kind of wanted to do something a little more funky,” Jennifer explained with a laugh. “It was my idea: Why don’t we try to get married on the tram?” Wesley and his parents had lived on the island at one point, and after Jennifer moved to the city, he had taken her there. “Roosevelt Island has always been a little special to me because of the time I spent there,” Wesley said. “It’s changed quite a bit over the years…so when I was showing Jennifer around, she was curious about the places I had lived.”
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Jennifer fell in love with tram, and their photographer, Jennifer MacFarlane, happened to be married to an officiant, the Most Reverend Matt Levy. Neither had done a tram ceremony before. “We emailed them, and they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’d love to do this,’ ” she said. Levy had sent the couple what he calls a “love questionnaire” to fill out before the ceremony. “We didn’t want to know what he was going to say,” she said. The day of the wedding, Levy started the ceremony at the plaza below the tram near the 59th Street Bridge. Jennifer said the ceremony was funny and heartfelt, with Wesley saying, “It was tailor-made to us.” After they got the ball rolling, the couple and their guests used their MetroCards to get on the tram. Without a permit or asking for permission, the couple hoped for the best — saying their vows while the tram went over the East River. TRAM continued on p. 12 VOLUME 08, ISSUE xx | December 22 – 28, 2016