I caught up with 1Oak honcho Scott Sartiano and asked him if they were still suing some of his neighbors. A resounding "yes" led to a conversation which went beyond Andrea Peyser's New York Post article about the lawsuit. 1Oak is suing a tenant, Ann Fredlin, who lives on the 20th floor of the Caledonia, a new construction directly across from the boite. Two other people named, LeCee Johnson and Bobby Cintron, live in the Clinton housing building up the block near 10th Avenue. The $2 million lawsuit is a result, according to a source , of "continuing harassment and lies told to anyone who will listen." This sort of conflict was inevitable when the city rezoned the area to "mixed use" to support the highly ambitious, highly brilliant High Line project.

The High Line and the surrounding galleries, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs of the Meatpacking District and neighboring Outer Chelsea (OuCh) made the hood a sexy place for new residential construction. The Caledonia, a magnificent building, was built with everyone -- developers, new tenants, local police, and community -- knowing that nightclubs existed prior to and adjacent, and they were thriving. A visit to the Caledonia website's neighborhood section even boasts about the proximity of the building to 1Oak, Cielo, the Park, and other hotspots:

1Oak - Sophistication, attentive service, and egalitarian spirit combine at 1OAK. Here, the barriers between art and fashion, famous and infamous, upcoming and established have been deliberately torn down, creating a unique environment that is amicable and unpredictable. 1OAK embodies the passion of the Avant-garde and embraces the new and the unknown.

When 1oak co-owner Scott Sartiano, who also lives in the Caledonia, asked me to his apartment to bless his decorator's paint colors, I noticed the workers on the High Line busy as the birds and bees that used to nest there. They were hammering, drilling, banging, and I'm sure yelling at each other as construction people tend to do, yet I couldn't hear them at all. Thick windows made it a silent spring day. The upcoming lawsuit will emphasize that the Department of Environmental Protection has done two sets of readings in Ann Fredlin's apartment and found nothing to write about. No violations were issued. The Caledonia has 392 residents, and it's Fredlin who is doing the complaining. 62 of the tenants have gone so far as to sign a petition in support of 1Oak.

In its two-year history, 1Oak has not received any violations. That is unheard of in the biz. The lawsuit will ensure that "these frivolous attacks will be answered." Scott offered, "At the end of the day small businesses should not be the personal punching bag of angry people. She is attacking my business without merit, she has slandered us to anyone she comes in contact with, and we intend to use all of our resources to stand up for our rights." A typical incident was when she filmed a woman smoking approximately 50 feet from the front door of the hotspot. Although no one else has superman eyes, Fredlin tells the world it was a joint. I have been told that "police and many others who have seen the film attest to the silliness of her slander." Even if it was a joint, the women in question was on 17th Street and could have been a patron of any of the local spots, a passerby, or even a resident of the Caledonia. Fifty feet away from the front door of 1Oak makes her other people's problem. It must be pointed out that 1Oak spends $10,000 a month on security to keep the cabs from honking and keeping traffic moving, including pedestrian traffic. They also sweep the streets all the way to the corner of 10th Avenue

The cabs honking is an interesting subject, as they seem to be most troublesome. Most of the problems arose during High Line construction when a project crane parked nearby blocked a lane and caused congestion. The community and police stepped in and closed 17th Street to traffic. Yet according to my sources, Fredlin and her trio still complained about ghost cabs and ghost honking. LeCee Johnson is described as a dog walker who asked the police if they could get exiting 1Oak patrons to stop talking. The police official replied, "What do you want me to do, arrest them?" to which Johnson replied, "Can you?". My source is said to have responded, "This isn't Cuba, lady." Johnson and her crew have written countless letters to the mayor's office, police commissioner, community boards, borough commander, and borough president's office filled with "untruths."

Despite Johnson's continuing objection to 1Oak, she supported a liquor license for a 200-person-occupancy pizza restaurant directly across the street from her place at a board licensing committee meeting the other day. One member rose up and declared he was "flabbergasted by her position"; my sources point out that this clearly underlines her personal vendetta against 1Oak. My source says Fredlin, although expected at the meeting, was a first-time no-show. The last of the named trio, Bobby Cintron, is described as a decent man but easily manipulated by the other two. High-powered attorney Ken Sussmane has been hired by 1Oak to pursue the lawsuit.

This is not a case of a big bad boite picking on poor defenseless innocents. This is a story playing out all over the city -- a few people making the lives and existence of legitimate business impossible. The few will now have to put their money where their mouths are, as I suspect places will indeed turn to their legal counsel to protect their rights. I visit 1Oak regularly and must point out (with a few exceptions like Fashion Week or the VMAs) there is not a line of more than a few people outside. It is for the most part a "if you're getting in, you're getting in kind of place." Handfuls of wannabes mull around but soon give it up as security informs them it isn't going to happen.

I am not an employee of 1Oak, but I should point out that I am designing a new space on 14th Street for them; also, Scott and Richie Akiva, Ronnie Madra, Jeffrey Jah, and many others employed there worked for me in my past life. This blog is sometimes biased -- biased for people who run their businesses professionally, as 1Oak and Avenue and the Park are run. All lie within a 150 feet of where these three people reside. The hospitality joints were there before the Caledonia and the new construction that has blossomed with the magnificent High Line.

Before the joints, these streets were havens for hookers and pimps. The bars, restaurants, and clubs came first, did the heavy lifting, braved the crime, and invested millions in their businesses. Then came the boutiques and now the high-rent high rises. For the most part these spaces live in harmony with the thousands of tenants who breathe the same air. The spaces all send owners and management-level personnel to community meetings and address the problems that arise in a mixed-use neighborhood. Problems are solved, tenants and places co-exist, and only a few like Fredlin, Johnson, and Cintron choose to fight with lies and innuendo. They will now have more than a day in court to prove their accusations and protect their assets. Just a reminder to Fredlin, something my mommy once told me: "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!" Especially when that glass is built really, really thick.