As early as 2007, when Our Lady of Vilnius was locked, Lithuanian publications were already locating our church in "Hodson Skvere." Since those days, real estate and business interests have been trying to morph the gritty and inky printing district into the mildly quirky yet infinitely more sanitized "Hudson Square." Just yesterday I noticed how deeply these settlers had driven their stakes into the asphalt with the "Hudson Square Exchange" cheek by jowl with the "Hudson Square Pharmacy."
Why not take a page from Vilnius and morph it into "Užupio NYC?" Shouldn't Manhattan make room for a playfully anarchic community of artists and their patron$? Our Lady of Vilnius, now the eyesore on the southern margin of the district can become the anchor for a new geographic parish of Lithuanian settlers. Does Zydrunas Ilgauskas still own a house on Thompson Street? That's a start. Maybe we can buy the egg, nest it by the Holland Tunnel access on Varick and see what hatches.
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