By David Spett
George O’Dowd, better known as singer Boy George, was recently sentenced to five days of community service in Sanitation District 3 for falsely reporting a burglary in his Little Italy loft on Oct. 7, 2005. Police responding to the scene also found 14 bags of cocaine.
His community service starts Aug. 14.
The boundaries of Sanitation District 3 are contiguous with those of Community Board 3, which covers the East Village, Lower East Side and most of Chinatown. Since few residents of Chinatown and the Lower East Side deny that their neighborhoods could use some community service, The Villager decided to ask a few New Yorkers to suggest ways Boy George can help the community.
“He’s got a lot to do. There’s so much guck and fish water and rotting vegetable debris,” said Cathy Glasson, a Grand St. resident. “He’s going to need a wagon. They can’t just give him a trash bag. A dumpster might help.”
Hizzoner former Mayor Ed Koch, who is a movie critic for The Villager, said: “Well, community service can take different forms. To me, the city and its residents would gain more putting him in a situation where he can teach that skill rather than simply do indiscriminate manual work.”
To what skill of Boy George was the mayor referring?
Makeup.
“He seems to know a lot about makeup,” Koch said. “He said he wants to teach it. Ask him! He proposed that he would teach makeup.”
Just in case the makeup idea falls through, the mayor suggested plan B: a Boy George concert in Washington Square Park “for whatever hours [of community service] he has.”
Although Washington Square parkgoers might indeed want to hear Boy George’s classic hits, such as “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Time,” the Greenwich Village park is actually in Sanitation District 2, not 3. But maybe George could perform in Tompkins Square Park.
Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, concurred with Koch on the concert.
“That would be wonderful,” Sweeney said.
He added that perhaps Boy George could also clean commercial advertisements stuck on lampposts, which are unsightly and illegal.
“Get a scraper, scrape it off and repaint the lamppost,” Sweeney said, adding that George should mix sand with the paint so that future ads are easier to remove.
Sweeney said the singer should also clean up graffiti, a problem all over Soho.
David Eng, marketing and development director of the Chinatown Partnership L.D.C., said he really needs Boy George’s help.
“We would love it if he would help us promote Chinatown,” Eng said. “He could help bring attention to the neighborhood. I would love that.”
But more important than all of these proposals, Sweeney said, is cleaning up Boy George’s makeup.
“I would start with [that],” he said. “His facial makeup really needs work.”
Chances are George won’t be wearing heavy makeup while he’s cleaning the streets in the August heat. These days, he’s more identifiable by an elaborate tribal tattoo on the back of his shaved head and neck.
At the last moment, Sweeney threw in one more idea: “Maybe Boy George could take some of the kids to the beach, but I don’t know if the parents would like that.”
Boy George, without makeup
