Our admittedly limited exposure to the private clubs of our fair city has thus far been an exercise in douchebaggery. The pool at Soho House (which, let's face it, is the reason you join), when not filled with children and their pee, is filled with money managers, mortgage brokers, and Eurotrash; the National Arts Club average member age hovers somewhere between 75 and 77; the various university clubs we've visited have all been too boring for words. So the news that 29-year-old developer Ben Shaoul bought an $8 million townhouse with the hopes of turning it into a branch of the "Citizens Arts Club" (there's already one in London) didn't really excite us. What's more interesting is that Shaoul bought out-slash-evicted a bunch of artist squatters from a building he bought at St. Marks and Ave. A last April. Wonder if he'll be offering them memberships in his new club?

Chelsea Brain Trust? 'With-It' Anglophiles Redo Landmark Mansion on West 14th [NYO]