Ben "The Sledgehammer" Shaoul, the boy king of the East Village/Lower East Side, is up to his old tricks. Or, more specifically, his old trick—forcing stubborn, rent-stabilized tenants out of the apartments he owns by having their buildings demolished around them. His latest adversary, 88-year-old Beat poet and former friend of Andy Warhol Taylor Mead, has lived in 163 Ludlow for 34 years and has no plans of going anywhere, even with his sink not working and plaster falling off the walls. "[Ben Shaoul] doesn't give a shit who I am," Mead says. "It's going to be hell." [NYP; previously]
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