The Buzz

SEMINARY’S AFFORDABLE ADVENTURE: General Theological Seminary officials met with representatives from the New York City Housing Authority and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development on Monday and presented their vision for affordable housing on a NYCHA parking lot on W. 19th St. between Ninth and Tenth Aves., directly behind G.T.S.’s building at 422 W. 20th St. “NYCHA was neutral on this,” said Laura Morrison, chief of staff for State Sen. Tom Duane, who attended the meeting and notes that zoning rules require a 30-foot clearance between buildings. Since the back of G.T.S.’s W. 20th St. structure touches the property line, which takes away 30 feet of clearance for the W. 19th St. site, G.T.S. floated one idea to work around the rule: attach the buildings via an annex. “Making them essentially one building erases the need for that backyard clearance,” said G.T.S.’s outreach coordinator, Chris Ballard. Affordable housing advocate Miguel Acevedo, who was also present on Monday, said that NYCHA asked G.T.S. if it planned on selling the agency its unused development rights or donating them; G.T.S. assured it wanted no money. Acevedo likes what he sees: “I’m all for G.T.S.’s plan, since we’ve been losing so much affordable housing in Chelsea. All that’s being built around us is condos, condos, condos. Fulton Houses residents are afraid we’ll be priced out, or that our children will have nowhere to move.”

Big trip: Council Speaker Christine Quinn is leading a group of 11 councilmembers on a trip to Israel this week. The City Council Office of Communications sent a media advisory on Tuesday discussing a rocket attack that occurred at Nir-am Kibbutz, close to where Quinn was meeting with Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal. The trip, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council, is part of a tradition going back more than 50 years of New York politicians visiting the “three I’s” — Israel, Ireland and Italy — to honor the historic background of city residents. Quinn’s visit has increased speculation she’ll run for mayor.

CHELSEA WAITERS LAWSUIT: At $36 a pop, the New York sirloin steak may be the dish du jour at Old Homestead steakhouse in Chelsea, but the four employees of the venerable, old-school restaurant who are suing their employer for wrongful operation of a tipping pool aren’t impressed. After all, they claim the rigged system denied them and other employees minimum and overtime wages to the tune of more than $1 million in income during the past six years. The waiters say the restaurant, at 56 Ninth Ave. and 14th St., illegally ran a tipping pool for employees and managers not eligible to receive tips —which, if true, is about as tacky as the cow sculpture out in front of the restaurant. Federal and state labor laws stipulate that only employees who actually serve food and beverages can be part of a tip pool.

CHELSEA BOY MAKES GOOD: Chelsea-based Architect Alexandros Washburn was tapped by City Planning Director Amanda Burden last week as the agency’s next urban design director. The 44-year-old Washburn is the principal of W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, located at 127 W. 25th St., which specializes in urban design, master planning, waterfront properties and landscape design. From 1996 to 2000, he was president of the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation, the state agency charged with expanding the station into the General Post office on the west side of Eighth Ave. In a return to his “roots,” Washburn will now help evaluate the design of a new station and proposed commercial development on the east side of the avenue.