In the wake of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, many desperately wish they could do something more than just “write a check” to help. Soho’s Ian Dutton, a member of Community Board 2, answered the call in a big way when, over the past weekend, he flew more than 100 U.S. troops down to Port-au-Prince to help in the crisis, then evacuated more than 80 Haitians on his return trip to the States.

Dutton is known locally as vice chairperson of C.B. 2’s Transportation Committee, on which he’s a vocal advocate for creating more bike lanes. Wearing another hat, he’s a magenta- haired, goth activist, who joined a law- suit against New York City’s cabaret laws that limit dancing.

His day job, however, is as a com- mercial pilot for Continental Airlines. His dueling alter egos are summed up in his e-mail handle: “Dark Pilot.”

This month, Dutton is on duty as a reserve pilot, meaning he has to be ready to take any flight on short notice.

The call came on his cell phone Saturday afternoon as Dutton and his wife, Shea Hovey, were in Central Park on their way to the zoo.

It was Dutton’s captain on the cell, telling him that Continental was going to airlift troops into Haiti.

“He said, ‘You’re going to be going way beyond you’re normal air time,’” Dutton said.

Dutton, 40, spoke to The Villager Monday around noon, after he had had a chance to get some sleep after the marathon mission.

The captain gave him several chanc- es to back out if he wanted to, Dutton said.

“We can’t afford to have a plane stuck in Haiti,” his superior told him, stressing the urgency of completing the job successfully.

“I was more than excited to do something,” Dutton said. “You feel all you can do is text-message your $10” to help the relief effort.

To Dutton’s knowledge, this was the fi rst instance of a U.S. commercial air- line being used to help the relief effort

By 5 p.m. Saturday, Dutton was at Continental’s hub at Newark Airport. Three pilots — one more than usual — would be aboard the 757: two captains, along with Dutton, the fi rst offi cer, who would ride in the monitoring pilot’s seat the whole time. (The monitoring pilot keeps an eye on things while another pilot is at the controls.) Also along for the flight were a mechanic, a load planner and four flight attendants,

“They had asked for it,” Dutton said of the two Haitian attendants’ request for the assignment. “It was helpful because they spoke the Creole; it was helpful when we brought evacuees out.”

At 1 a.m., they roared out of Newark en route to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. There they loaded in

A blurb in the “History” section of the Chelsea Hotel’s recently revamped Web site touts some of the countless boldface-named bohemians to have taken up residence at the legendary W. 23rd St. lodge. There are obligatory mentions of Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, as well as artists Larry Rivers and Willem de Kooning.

After trotting out a few more marquee names on the newly burnished site, like

playwright “Eugene O’Neil” [sic] and composer “Virgil Thompson” [sic], the write- up concludes, asking simply: “Who will be next?”

Judging by the hotel’s policy to stop renting to long-term residents — a practice that ended with the contentious ouster of 50-year manager Stanley Bard two-and-a-half years ago — it’s not actually ten- ants of the aforementioned

At Chelsea Hotel,
putting up plaques,
but evicting artists

Tequila Minsky, a Soho resident and freelance pho- tographer for The Villager, was in Haiti last week and captured some of the fi rst images of the tragic earth- quake’s aftermath. Minsky, a lover of Haitian culture, fre- quently visits the Caribbean nation, and happened to be there on Jan. 12, in her hotel room in Port-au-Prince, when the quake hit. Despite communication limits, she was able to e-mail us this report this week.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 18 — Much of the city is sleeping outside at night, and those in damaged homes have moved into the streets and courtyards, side- walks, parking lots and pub- lic parks.

I have seen a few water trucks distributing water but water distribution is not on a grand scale. Many, many bodies are still buried in

Soho photog was
in Haiti for quake;
Slams looting hype

Grieve, we believe (hey, that rhymes), might have come up with the best hope — well, maybe it’s more like a prayer — for saving Ray’s Candy Store, at Seventh St. and Avenue A, from eviction. Sure, a fundraiser to pay Ray Alvarez’s last two months rent would be great, but what about going forward? Goggla posted: “Maybe the mysterious donor who stepped in and saved St. Brigid’s will extend their generosity to another neighborhood landmark. If the $8K is raised to save Ray, what about the next month, and the one after that?” In May 2008, the Catholic Archdiocese announced it had accepted an anonymous $20 million donation to restore St. Brigid’s Church and save it from demolition. More recently, an anonymous donor gave the ABC No Rio arts collective $1 million. Could Ray be next?

ation since late November when talks for Hartman’s Grand Park apparently fi zzled. “It’s not going to open,” Tumminia told us last week. “We were no longer in discussions with Jesse for the space [in late November]. It didn’t reach frui- tion.” Thus, all the hype and blogging about the restaurant was for naught. “It was all just premature,” Tumminia said. “There was no deal, there was no lease.” He noted that all 4,000 people living in Seward Park Co-op got a newsletter a while back stating as much. On a positive note, Tumminia is excited about a new car-sharing program set to start immi- nently in Seward Park Co-op. Hertz will have two cars at the co-op, a Prius hybrid and a Smart Car, which co-op mem- bers, as well as other residents living nearby, will be able to rent on an hourly basis ($10 per hour) or even for a whole weekend. The co-op prez said the cars will be available to “any resident living in reasonable walking distance [of the co-op].” Users become a member of Connect by Hertz, a

car-sharing program similar to Zipcar, and receive a card that allows them to use the vehicles. The cars will have iPod docks for tunes, and gas will be by credit card. Tumminia said this is a first-of-its-kind program in which a co-op has a car-sharing program like this.

ed McDonald’s experience? Look no farther than the new McCafe, on Sixth Ave. between 14th and 15th Sts. Opened in September, the place features chic 1950s and ’60s retro- style decor, subdued lighting and old-school funk and hip hop on the sound system, pumping at a cool, low volume. (While we were munching our burger, we distinctly heard “Rapper’s Delight” and “Planet Rock.”) Just call it the “Mickey D Laid- back Lounge.” Manager Carlos Mulles told us it’s the fi rst of its kind in the United States, with 15 more set to open in New York State. The McCafe offers a full line of burgers, as well as frozen coffee drinks, and is open 24 hours.

new luxury condo at Greenwich and Eighth Aves. — with the undulating glass facade — is about half full, with 15 units currently occupied. Still available is the penthouse, asking price, oh, just $21.75 million. (Wow, think of all the relief that could provide in Haiti.) To keep out the riffraff, the building’s front door is always locked, unless the door- man, who sits a ways back at a desk behind curving bamboo walls, pushes a button to open it. Eventually, tenants will get microchip keys allowing them to open the front door by themselves, he said. It all seemed pretty “Star Trek” to us.

winter hours, as of mid-December the park has been closing two hours earlier, at 8 p.m. We took a jaunt on the High Line on Sunday, the super-blustery day, and were expecting to see no one else up there, but there were indeed a few brave souls out walking the paths.

“Old-fashioned in every way”,
this Chelsea “trip back in time”
purveys “hearty” Americana
in a “Waterford-and-wood-
buring-fireplace” setting; add in
“accommodating” staffers who
“pour a great Guinness” and the
“whole is definitely equal to
more than the sum of its parts.”

Home of the NFL Sunday Ticket,
College Football, Premier League
Soccer, MLB Playoffs + World Series

The new, expanded Union Square Park playground opened two weeks ago with little fanfare from the Department of Parks and the Union Square Partnership. But word got around quickly to children and parents, who flocked to the space at the north end of the park.

It took a mild school-holiday morning on Mon., Jan. 18 — Martin Luther King Day — to bring out the crowds of neigh- bors and visitors to the newly completed, 15,000-square-foot playground.

“My daughter Kalen used to play in the old one,” said Newelle McDonald, who lives in the neighborhood. “She’s 12 years old now and she started coming here with her middle school friends to climb on the silver dome. It looks great — I’d like to try it myself,” McDonald said.

The climbing-and-sliding silver dome is one of the features in the new playground’s eastern side designed for older children. A center section of the playground, just in front of the pavilion, is designed for children ages 5 to 12. It has a spinning teacup called The Nest, and features a water area with a

fountain and a mist device that will open in the summer. The western section, designed for toddlers and children up to age 5, has a large swing set, climbing platforms with slides and, opening in the summer, a sand- and-water play area.

Micki Smith, with Maximilian, her 6-month-old son, came for a visit on Monday.

“He’s a little too young, but we’ve walked through it three or four times last week,” said Smith, who lives on E. 10th St. “It’s so nice, I can’t wait to bring him here when he’s a little older.” Smith said she was glad the new play- ground was expanded from the 5,000 square feet of the original. “It gives kids who live in small apartments space to run,” she said.

park’s 16th St. transverse. The playground is part of the renovation of the north end of Union Square Park, a joint project of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Union Square Partnership, the business improvement district, or BID, that includes Union Square Park.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that the Union Square Park’s expanded playground is open,” Jennifer Falk, executive director of the partnership, said last week. “The kids have given it a huge thumbs up and parents and caregivers have been overwhelmingly positive.”

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, “The opening gives families in the Union Square neighborhood a spectacular, mod- ern, unified playground for children of all ages that is nearly triple its original size. Our collaboration with the Union Square Partnership has enabled us to create an exciting play space within a renovated north plaza that will include, when completed, a restored pavilion, public restrooms, new paving and many more trees.”

The north-end restoration is 95 per- cent complete, with work on the pavilion remaining.

‘The kids have given it
a huge thumbs up and
parents have been
overwhelmingly positive.’