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Nabe rallies to save Dr. Dave

Dr. Dave on Tuesday afternoon showing the latest total up to that point on the crowdfunding effort to help him keep his office space.   Photo by Zach Williams
Dr. Dave on Tuesday afternoon showing the latest total up to that point on the crowdfunding effort to help him keep his office space. Photo by Zach Williams

BY ZACH WILLIAMS  |  Within six days, 669 people joined the effort to keep Dr. David Ores right where he is.

Ores received word two weeks ago that he had just five days to vacate his office, at 189 E. Second St., due to outstanding commercial taxes that his landlord, Permanence LP, said he owed. He quickly set to work not only to contest the outstanding taxes in court but also to secure $30,917.76 — the amount due, according to his landlord — through an online crowdfunding effort.

By the time of his Housing Court appearance on the morning of Tues., July 29, he had received $34,715 in donations via gofundme.com. By the time he left the courtroom, he and his landlord had agreed to enter into negotiations under which Ores will pay a still-undetermined amount of the back taxes, while avoiding any further threat of eviction from the space he has occupied for the last two years.

“I want to pay my fair share,” Ores said after leaving the courtroom.

Permanence LP representatives could not be reached for comment by press time. The two parties have until Sept. 5 to reach an agreement, which will require the landlord to provide a certificate of tax before negotiations on a settlement can begin.

Ores said the dispute began after he returned from a trip to New Orleans only to receive the five-day eviction notice. In his absence, he had missed a court appearance, of which he said he was unaware, resulting in Permanence LP receiving a default judgment against him. After contacting his landlord, Ores received a letter back in which the owner agreed to nullify the judgment.

The ease with which his landlord helped him schedule a new court date demonstrated a desire to retain him as a tenant, Ores said. However, the cooperation came at a strange time, considering the ongoing legal case brought by Permanence LP against him, he added.

“That’s a funny way of showing it,” Ores said. “I don’t think they’re being hostile,” he added. “I just think we should just have a payment plan.”

Going to court could have been avoided, Ores said, had the landlord let him know within the last two years that he was expected to pay commercial taxes on his space. That he only found out at the very last minute that he would have to pay up or relocate his medical practice didn’t help the situation, either, he added.

“This all happened because I did not have $30,000 in my pocket, and then the eviction guy came,” Ores said.

Since hanging his shingle in the East Village, Ores has garnered media attention and community support for his “pay what you can” sliding-scale patient fees. Sporting heavily tattooed arms and a quick wit, he offered free food and medical care after Hurricane Sandy. In short, he represents a different type of doctor in a city filled with professional peers making the big bucks.

Asked by The Villager how he makes a living with such a business model, Ores explained that he keeps costs down by running the office without any staff, while also cutting off those patients who have the means, and make promises, but ultimately do not pay for his services.

Josh Bisker, one of his patients, said Ores is an “East Village folk hero” whose “brusqueness” accentuates a certain type of gritty altruism.

Contributors to the online fundraising effort added small notes of gratitude explaining how, in their time of need, Dr. Dave spared neither expense nor effort in helping them. Such a collective effort aimed at keeping him doing what he does makes Ores feel as if he were Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” he said.

“This man saved me several times,” posted a contributor under the name Rex Roberts. “One time I fell over and needed 12 stitches on my knee. I had no insurance and Dr. Dave saved the day… . He helped my friend Carlos with his pinkeye, and he didn’t have any papers or insurance either.”