Good Old Lower East Side

GOLES LOWER EAST SIDE TENANTS UNION IN ACTION

Feb 22, 2001

Serious issues are impacting the Lower East Side as more aggressive gentrification offenses threaten our community. ?“ It?’s a self-fulfilling prophesy?”, says Peter Marcuse, an ?“urban planner?” professor at Columbia University. ?“(The city) makes political choices to cut budgets and get rid of ?“competent?” people. The mayor?’s main goal is to get the city out of the housing business, but the goal should be to see that New Yorkers are adequately housed. As the market remains strong, gentrification and displacement are unavoidable. What ultimately happens,?” Marcuse continued to say, ?“ is that a neighborhood is no longer affordable to those who have the greatest need.?”

It is imperative that we continue to stand together so that we can protect our homes. As we continue to recognize the patterns of how so many of us are being pressured to leave our own neighborhood, we are learning from our experiences to become wiser. It is in the neighborhoods that the affordable housing campaign will be won or lost!

It is true that there are many issues with which our Tenants Union is facing. With each new challenge, our Tenants Union has been sending the message: ?“Fight Back! Despierta!?”

This is what has been going on.
On January 18, a delegation of tenant organizations under the umbrella of the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development held a public forum with heads of this city?’s Housing Preservation and Development. The meeting was held at New York University and in attendance representing HPD were Deputy Commissioner John Warren and Special Counsel Harold Schultz. The forum was a direct face-to-face confrontation with city-wide tenants and HPD. A well prepared tenant body gave testimonies of flawed HPD procedures and regulations. Some offered detailed and very descriptive statements concerning their experiences with HPD?’s
limited ability to respond to and remedy countless problems that tenants are forced to deal with because of poor building maintenance. At many times the HPD officials were unable to explain the reasons for why routine systems fail to operate effectively.

Issues such as code enforcement inspections and response time to serious violations were a major topic of examination. As a result from this forum, HPD has now committed itself to passing out informational pamphlets at inspections. There remained issues that were never satisfactorily resolved. Perhaps the best outcome was that HPD has agreed to meet with the City-Wide Code Enforcement Coalition at a later time to review complaints. In short, we, as organized tenants, are making HPD officials accountable for their agency.

On January 29, the Tenants?’ Association of 10 Stanton Street (The Cooper Square Houses) filled two chartered buses and traveled to voice their concerns about the newly proposed plan by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to construct an underground exhaust fan plant at the very edge of the foundation of their building. The plan calls for excavation some 70 feet deep just 50 feet away from the building?’s east outside wall. The idea is that, in the event of a subway fire (or some other emergency where powered ventilation is required) these fans will be used to exhaust the smoke and other air-borne debris. MTA has found it more accommodating to use the lot of the Stanton Street property than anywhere else in the area, including dismissing the possibility of building in Sara Roosevelt Park, located directly across the street. According to a statement issued by the transit corporation, ?“We would be saving trees.?”

But while the attention was put on saving trees, the 300 plus residents of 10 Stanton Street were concerned for their health, their security from a possible ?“blunder?” that could cause them to be displaced and for the safety of their building that structural damage would not occur. The building occupants raised concerns for the agitation of asthma, noise, rats and other health issues. The message from MTA was clear. The MTA seemed to disregard these concerns.
This meeting attracted every elected official that represents the Lower East Side. Speaking against the plan or at less, suggesting that the plan be constructed in Roosevelt Park, were United States Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, the offices of State Senator Martin Connor, and New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Councilmember Kathryn Freed, Community Board 3 Chair Lisa Kaplan and many tenant organizer leaders and the residents of the Cooper Square House.
The meeting caught fire after tenants in the maximum capacity crowded room chanted down the plan with ?“We Won?’t Go!?” The two and a half hour meeting ended with a question period addressed to the MTA panelist. Once again, corporate heads shied away from offering any real amendments to the plan. It was insulting to not only the tenants, but also to the elected officials who demanded a vacate order to the plan at once.