Neighbors are blaming Facebook co-founder Sean Parker for turning one of Greenwich Village’s most famous blocks into a snowbank so he could get FIOS installed in his $20 million home.
On Wednesday a bulldozer began pushing snow away from the south side of W. 10th street at the Fifth Avenue end – leaving the area in front of Parker’s six-bedroom home clear, but causing a traffic nightmare mess at the Sixth Avenue end.
“People come out and look with open mouths because they’ve never seen anything like this,” a veteran doorman said. “It’s insane. If this was done for one person it’s shocking.”
Workers cut into the street at the Fifth Avenue end earlier in the week and left tape that read “Caution – Fiberoptic line below.”
Stephen Stoneburn 76, who owns a building on the block, said a foreman on the project told him all the work is going to Sean Parker’s house.
“He’s Sean Parker, he does what he wants,” Stoneburn said. “I was told it’s going to his house and his house only.”
He said the work created a nightmare for residents and drivers.
“Parked cars were towed. They took all the snow and put it on this end, which seems beyond belief. The street was closed periodically, emergency vehicles couldn’t get through,” Stoneburn said.
“I could understand this if they were putting FIOS lines in every building,” said another neighbor, who has lived on the block since 1980. “Obviously you gotta know somebody.”
A man who answered the door at Parker’s home, known as the “Bacchus House” because of its opulence, said Parker was not home and he knew nothing about FIOS installation and the snow controversy.
A friend of the tech mogul confirmed that Parker was having FIOS installed and the friend express surprise at the neighborhood hullabaloo.
“People have been moving the snow from outside Sean’s property and shoveling it into the street, where the is snow is melting. This is happening all over the city today. This certainly isn’t causing anyone an inconvenience,” the friend said.
“He is getting FIOS installed, but this is also a good thing for his neighbors. It previously wasn’t available on the street, so other neighbors can benefit from it too if they want to choose a cable network other than Time Warner Cable. It takes a bit of work to lay the cables, but this is to everybody’s benefit.”
A Verizon spokesman said the company never provides details about a customer’s account, including what services they subscribe to.
But he said, “We haven’t done any excavation work for FIOS or any other type of cable (copper) on 10th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.” Other properties on the block already have FIOS, he said.
The block has some of the oldest residential buildings in the city and is known for a string of 10 brownstones known as Renwick Row. Among the famous residents of the block have been Mark Twain — whose former home was cleared of snow thanks to the construction.