Dot’s the way I like it: We bumped into Paul Garrin on Avenue A the other day and got the latest on his ongoing effort to have his NAME.SPACE company recognized as the sole rightful owner of .nyc. Garrin also has hundreds of other so-called top-level domain names that he lays claim to, but recently narrowed the list down to a “Top 20,” which includes, in alphabetical order, .art, .blog, .cam, .film, .food, .free, .gallery, .gay, .green, .media, .music, .now, .nyc, .peace, .people, .radio, .shop, .space, .sucks — one of our personal favorites — and, last but not least, .video. The East Village Internet guru said that since it now seems that the city is no longer interested in actually running or owning .nyc, he’s forging ahead with his plan to sign up people for .nyc, plus any of these domain names, for the low cost of just $30 a pop. He’ll be tabling at the HOWL! Festival later this summer. In the meantime, Garrin’s looking for neighborhood-based “domain agents” — we know, it sounds a bit “Matrix”-like — to sign up new clients in the East Village, West Village, Soho, etc. Each domain agent will get about one-third of the purchase price, or $10, and will keep raking in this same amount annually if the client renews. In other words, sign up 100 people per year, and you pocket a cool $1,000. “I actually offered Jim Power to do it,” Garrin said of how he tried to help out the East Village’s “Mosaic Man,” though adding that he doesn’t know if Power is “oriented enough” to handle it. Garrin has been crunching the numbers on his “Top 20,” and feels that in three years, they would break even, while after five years, they would generate $10 million. Of course, Garrin still has to get ICAAN — the mysterious cyber body that regulates and assigns domain names — to recognize that he owns .nyc, not to mention the 19 other ones. He doesn’t use the word “buy” to describe this, rather that NAME.SPACE will merely pay the “processing fee.” Although the city said it would cost $180,000 to buy .nyc from ICAAN, Garrin hopes he won’t have to pay this same amount for each additional T.L.D., but more along the lines of $5,000 per. Meanwhile, Garrin notes — in addition to trying to help out “Mosaic Man” — he’s pumping money into the local economy in others ways, such as by having Works in Progress on E. Fourth St. produce “I ♥nyc” T-shirts and tote bags. These snazzy perks only will be given to those cool enough to have purchased a NAME.SPACE domain name. For more information, visit https://registerNYC.net .
Another one bites the dust: Stop the presses! Don MacPherson has cut off his ponytail. At least so we were told when we stopped in at The Cupping Room on Broome St. in Soho last week. Our source told us it’s part of MacPherson’s “new image.” It couldn’t hurt, since MacPherson’s previous image certainly took a hit four months ago, when he and his wife were charged in an alleged $50 million S&M/Hamptons mortgage scam.
Teflon Stonewall? Following up on last week’s Scoopy’s exclusive on the Stonewall Veterans’ Association’s being stonewalled thus far in trying to get Community Board 2’s blessing for its Sept. 26 Greenwich Ave. street fair, let’s not forget that C.B. 2 nearly put the kibosh on S.V.A. last year. Just like this year, C.B. 2’s Street Activities Committee last year was having a hard time determining the “legitimacy of the organization and their nexus to the community,” which wasn’t helped by the lack of information forthcoming from S.V.A. Phil Mouquinho, the committee’s former chairperson, was getting tough on S.V.A.’s president, Williamson Henderson, at one meeting last year, and Henderson stormed out of the room. “This guy did not have any list of where the money [from the street fair] went,” Mouquinho said. “He got up and left the meeting and was shouting and very indignant.” Right around that time, though, Mouquinho was not reappointed to C.B. 2, which he claims was payback by Borough President Scott Stringer for his speaking out against the Spring St. Sanitation megagarage project. Mouquinho’s replacement as committee chairperson, Amanda Kahn Fried, was equally hard on S.V.A. — but she, in turn, was pulled off the board over a conflict of interest with her job, though reappointed later on. As a result, as less stringent committee members took charge, S.V.A.’s street fair slipped through and got approved. Could the same process be repeating this year? In the mold of Mouquino and Fried, attorney Evan Lederman, the current committee chairperson, really had been putting all street-fair applicants through the ringer, demanding that all the committee’s questions be answered. But lately he’s been totally tied up with work on the G.M. bailout, missing committee meetings, and in his absence, committee members seemingly more sympathetic to Henderson — Carol Yankay and Joe Flahaven — appear to be running the show. “At some point, it takes on a distasteful feeling of being singled out,” Flahaven said, regarding the committee’s treatment of S.V.A.’s application. Though off the board now, Mouquinho still maintains that Henderson’s application shouldn’t be approved. “I’ll never forget that he said part of the money went to care of his pink Cadillac,” Mouquinho scoffed incredulously. “I think it’s still yet to be determined,” Lederman said on Tuesday on how the committee will vote on S.V.A.’s application. Checking the A.G.’s Web site, he said, “It shows that they filed, but they haven’t filed since 1999 — that to me means it’s useless. The charitable information they sent us hasn’t been updated for a decade.” C.B. 2 will consider the matter at its full board meeting on Thursday. Meanwhile, Henderson left us a message saying he originally became “famous” because he was “a millionaire” — the inference being that he doesn’t need the funds from the street fair?
