From owner-nytenants-announce Sat Sep 5 13:41:51 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id NAA28595 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Sat, 5 Sep 1998 13:41:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts3-3.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.135]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id NAA28581 for <>; Sat, 5 Sep 1998 13:41:45 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980905133547.006a34d8> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 13:35:47 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Tenants Online 9/5/98: News from Chelsea Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by cnct.com id NAA28583 Sender: Precedence: bulk Tenants Online 9/5/98 ----------------------------------------------------------------- News from Chelsea * Chelsea Action Network addresses Deregulation * Board 4 writes Cardinal O'Connor on Leo House * Cardinal O'Connor calls for prayer for the homeless ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Adrian P. Dilollo"Subject: Chelsea Tenants Strike Back! Supported by the Hudson Guild, the Chelsea Action Network (CAN) is calling a public meeting on Tuesday October 6th to address the urgent issue of the rapid deregulation of stabilized housing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The Chelsea Housing Group estimates that 80% to 90% of all local apartments vacated since the enactment of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 have been deregulated. We believe that the vast majority of these have been de-regulated illegally. The public meeting will also address the issue of federal deregulation of public housing in the form of H.R 2, a virulently anti-tenant bill introduced by Long Island Congressman Vic Lazio. Urgent grass roots action is needed to save what's left of affordable housing in Chelsea! PUBLIC MEETING: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6TH AT 6:30 P.M. FULTON SENIOR CENTER, 119 9TH AVE. (BET. 18TH & 19TH STS.) REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED. ========================================================== LATEST ON LEO HOUSE The following letter was sent to Cardinal O'Conner from Community Board #4 in reference to Leo House Annex, a SRO Hotel on West 23rd St., which for five years has been seeking to evict its remaining tenants. Both the Leo House, and the adjacent tourist hotel, are owned by a not-for-profit organization with ties to the Archdiocese of New York. Cardinal O'Connor used to be on its board, but now it's the Cardinal's right hand man (if that makes any difference). In the five years since the eviction notices were served, some tenants have moved out in fear, some have died, some have become ill and been forced to leave for the kind of care they need -- but three valient women continued to hold out for the preservation of the annex as an affordable housing resource. Earlier this year, many on this mailing list called the Cardinal's office urging him to meet with the tenants and stay the evictions (court orders have already been issued). He agreed to the meeting, but now it seems they will proceed with the final evictions, tear down Leo House and replace it with an expanded tourist hotel. As the Cardinal washes his hands of these evictions, it's ironic to see the news report (below) where he calls for prayer for the homeless. We think it is important that the Cardinal know that his actions in this case are being watched by many New Yorkers. His number is 371-1000. ========================================================== September 3, 1998 His Eminence John Cardinal O'Connor Archdiocese of New York 1011 First Avenue New York, NY 10022-4134 Re: Leo House Annex, 332 West 23rd Street Your Eminence: Manhattan Community Board No. 4 writes to express our deep disappointment in the fate of the Leo House Annex and the displacement of the Leo House Annex tenants. When you met with the Leo House Annex tenants on April 2nd and promised them a review of the situation, we were encouraged. After five years of struggle, your intervention gave us reason to hope that the Annex could be preserved as affordable housing for women and that the remaining tenants would not be forced to move. As you know, Msgr. Murray wrote the tenants on August 26th that "Leo House has completed this further review and determined that it is necessary to proceed to vacate the building." It is important for you to understand that the community is skeptical of any review undertaken by the board or management of Leo House, especially since we have no information concerning the scope, content or thoroughness of this review, nor any reason to believe that Leo House undertook such a review in good faith. After five years of intransigence on their part, Leo House does not have a great deal of credibility with the community. We would like to know, from you, the particulars of this review. In the final analysis, the outcome of this five-year struggle is what Leo House has sought all along. During this struggle, Leo House has never said what their intentions are, and there is no specific information in Msgr. Murray's letter of what Leo House intends to do with the building other than vacate it. But we have learned that, as we anticipated all along, Leo House intends to demolish the Annex and construct a new building to expand their hotel operation. This is a sad end to this struggle. The Chelsea community has suffered a terrible loss of affordable housing in recent years. The closing of the Leo House Annex is one more loss. We would appreciate an opportunity to meet with Your Eminence soon to discuss this situation, and we will call your office next week in the hope of arranging such a meeting. Sincerely, Pamela Frederick Chair Community Board No. 4 cc: Hon. Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor Hon. C. Virginia Fields, Manhattan Borough President Hon. Jerrold Nadler, United States Representative Hon. Catherine Abate, State Senator Hon. Richard Gottfried, State Assemblymember Hon. Tom Duane, City Councilmember Jane Wood, Chelsea Coalition on Housing Adrian DiLollo, Chelsea Housing Group Elizabeth Kane, Esq., Westside SRO Law Project Msgr. James J. Murrary Rev. Kevin Sulllivan ========================================================== INVITE BY O'C TO PRAY FOR POOR NY Daily News, September 4, 1998 by CHARLES W. BELL In the most sweeping moral challenge to city and state officials in his 14 years as New York's leading religious figure, Cardinal O'Connor has asked Jewish, Muslim and Protestant leaders to join him in St. Patrick's Cathedral to pray for decent housing for the poor and homeless. The one-hour, multi-lingual service is planned for Wednesday, with O'Connor delivering the sermon. Scheduled to join him is a Who's Who of religious leaders, including the Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church, Bishop Richard Grein of the Episcopal diocese of New York, Archbishop Spyridon (spiritual leader of all Greek Orthodox worshipersin the United States) and Imam Pasha of Harlem's Malcolm Shabazz mosque. Other participants include Bishop Thomas Daily of the Brooklyn Diocese, the leaders of several Orthodox churches, and several rabbis, including Ronald Sobel of Temple Emanu-El. "This is the first time in many years that the [city's] clergy has come together on a single issue to pray," the Rev. John Duffell, a key organizer, said yesterday. He said that no public officials had been invited but that they were welcome to attend "and to join us in prayer." Neither City Hall nor Albany had any immediate reaction. In his invitation to other religious leaders, O'Connor said the service was intended to seek divine guidance for New York — "and especially for our governmental leaders as they design and implement policies that have substantial impact on the lives of the most vulnerable among us." Duffell, pastor of Ascension Church on the upper West Side, and the head of the organizing committee, said the idea for the service began early last year and "grew out of the city's handling of the homeless." Duffell declined to describe the service as a slap at politicians but said, "What became important to the city was the bottom line. We need to remind the city, the state and the federal government that we must not treat people as things." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Tue Sep 8 13:13:26 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id NAA29350 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Tue, 8 Sep 1998 13:13:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts3-10.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.142]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id NAA29345 for <>; Tue, 8 Sep 1998 13:13:21 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980908130710.006b0aec> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 13:07:10 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Tenants Online: Clinton Community to Protest Peter Vallone tonight Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk Tenants Online 9/8/98 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Clinton Community to Protest Peter Vallone tonight * Newsday article reports Vallone's son as alleged attacker of neighborhood residents (see bottom of article) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Press Advisory Clinton Community to Protest Peter Vallone at NY1 News Gubernatorial Debate, Tuesday, September 8 Residents also Protest Peter Vallone’s son allegedly attacking Neighborhood Protesters at Sunday’s Debate Members of the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood will protest the gubernatorial candidacy of City Council Speaker Peter Vallone at the New York 1 News Gubernatorial Debate to be held tonight, Tuesday September 8. The broadcast is slated to begin at 7 PM and neighborhood residents will assemble in front of NY1’s studios at 460 West 42nd Street about 6 PM in order to be present at Mr. Vallone’s arrival at the studio. Protesters are not supporting any particular candidate, nor are they affiliated with any other candidate’s campaign, but are protesting Mr. Vallone for his role in forcing City Council’s approval of the Eighth Avenue/Theater Subdistrict Rezoning Plan on August 6th. In June, Mr. Vallone held a fundraiser where he accepted campaign contributions from theater owners and lobbyists for the Broadway Initiative who directly benefit from the rezoning. Mr. Vallone has also accepted contributions from the development community who also benefit from the zoning change. Community residents note that while Mr. Vallone partied with his contributors at the Waldorf-Astoria on June 19, he refused to even speak with members of the Clinton neighborhood opposed to the plan and imposed the final result that will violate the Special Clinton District established in 1973 to protect the Clinton neighborhood. On Sunday, September 6, residents protested Mr. Vallone at the gubernatorial debate held at WABC-TV Channel 7. At that protest, residents were physically attacked by supporters of Mr. Vallone. New York Newsday identified one such attacker who “charged at and cursed a man” as Peter Vallone’s son, Peter Vallone, Jr. It's a question of accountability. Politicians like Peter Vallone, who made permanent defacto Vacancy Decontrol in 1994, will continue to run roughshod over tenants and neighborhoods unless there is accountability. When: Tuesday, September 8 at 6 p.m. (broadcast starts at 7 p.m.) Where: New York 1 News 460 West 42nd St. (southeast corner of 42nd St. and Tenth Avenue) # # # ================================================================== Note: See bottom of article regarding Vallone supporters attacking neighborhood residents. COUNTDOWN TO THE PRIMARY SEPT. 15 / Rivals Focus on Finances / Candidates in governor's race take shots in debate By Dan Janison. STAFF WRITER New York Newsday, September 7, 1998 Democratic candidates for governor exchanged a new series of verbal shots over campaign tactics and financing during and after a one-hour televised debate, even as they continued to agree on numerous other issues. Former state Transportation Commissioner James Larocca of Lloyd Harbor, widely seen as an underdog in the primary a week from tomorrow, branded it a "Wall Street bluff" that Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross' husband committed more than $2 million to her campaign - only to withdraw it once her candidacy was perceived as serious. McCaughey Ross dismissed the shot as "just one of those attacks and distortions" made by Larocca. Both of their comments followed the hourlong debate broadcast from WABC-TV studios in Manhattan, which mostly consisted of a question-and-answer format. During the debate, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes criticized City Council Speaker Peter Vallone of Astoria, saying he "cannot make the case credibly" for campaign-finance reform because he accepts money from real-estate interests doing business with the city. Larocca made a similar charge in a debate in Troy last week. Hynes called Vallone "czar" of the council. As Vallone's aides touted new polls showing him to be the front-runner, Vallone responded in a news conference following the debate that rejecting legal contributions would amount to surrendering to the better-funded incumbent, Republican Gov. George Pataki. As in three previous debates, the candidates aimed their broadest attacks at Pataki, accusing him of grandstanding on crime while failing to enforce health and environmental laws, or to improve education or work well with the Legislature. All four proposed new programs to create jobs, promote early childhood education and ensure protection from abuses by health-maintenance organizations. All four also condemned remarks at a Harlem youth rally Saturday by organizer Khallid Abdul Muhammad and mostly praised city police for their response. Vallone called for Muhammad's arrest for inciting attacks on police. On whether New York should honor out-of-state gay marriages, Vallone and McCaughey Ross expressed opposition, Larocca called it "inevitable" and Hynes said he'd sign the measure in the unlikely event the Legislature approved it. Answering a question about the related concerns of breast cancer and pesticide use on Long Island, Vallone, Hynes and Larocca blasted Pataki for allegedly failing to enforce environmental and health rules. McCaughey Ross said the state should be keeping closer track of the possible cancerous effects of pesticides. McCaughey Ross complained it was an "unfair question" when asked by a moderator how she reconciles running as a Democrat with having spoken positively about House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). "I have never supported Newt Gingrich's right-wing agenda," she declared. Just after the debate, however, Vallone aides handed out a quotation from a 1994 television appearance in which McCaughey Ross said, "I do support most of the provisions of [Gingrich's] Contract With America.' " Tempers in Vallone's camp flared more than 30 minutes before air time. As Vallone arrived at the studio, his son, Peter Vallone Jr., charged at and cursed a man he later said had pushed him. The other man, Bill Strembek of Manhattan, was among several demonstrators apparently jostled by other Vallone supporters. The protesters were surrounding and heckling Vallone, they said, for allowing changes in a zoning district that protected part of Manhattan's West Side from high-rise development. The scuffle was broken up quickly without police. Copyright 1998, Newsday Inc. COUNTDOWN TO THE PRIMARY SEPT. 15 / Rivals Focus on Finances / Candidates in governor's race take shots in debate., pp A04. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Wed Sep 9 23:04:14 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id XAA01307 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Wed, 9 Sep 1998 23:04:14 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts2-3.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.119]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id XAA01298 for <>; Wed, 9 Sep 1998 23:04:09 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980909225809.006b6628> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 22:58:09 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Rudy's Epidemic of Demolitions: 1,500 Buildings in 18 Months Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by cnct.com id XAA01302 Sender: Precedence: bulk FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACTS: Colleen F. McGuire, Esq. (212) 571-4080 Daphna Zekaria, Esq. (212) 571-4080 Robert E. Sokolski, Esq. (212) 571-4090 GUILIANI'S EPIDEMIC OF DEMOLITIONS: 1500 BUILDINGS IN 18 MONTHS On September 8, 1998, a small building owner, Denis McCarthy, filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New York for unlawfully demolishing his four-story building in Queens. The complaint alleges that the City denied Mr. McCarthy his constitutional due process rights and prevented him from saving his building by deliberately withholding documents and information justifying the demolition until months after his building had been leveled to the ground. A demolition frenzy prevails in the Guiliani Administration. In the past 3 years, the City budget for demolitions has doubled. According to the Department of Buildings, since January, 1997, 1500 buildings have either been demolished or are currently slated for demolition. Mr. McCarthy's building, intended for residential usage, was located next to a recently erected luxury high-rise development. During the course of his lawsuit, we (Mr. McCarthy, his supporters and his lawyers) intend to discover how many other buildings owned by small property owners were similarly demolished without judicial process in neighborhoods where corporate developers are itching to expand. We intend to discover how many of these 1500 demolitions have already displaced or will displace low and middle income tenants. While the City appears to have absolute power to demolish a building it deems "unsafe," Mr. McCarthy maintains that his building was not "unsafe." Nevertheless, the Department of Buildings made a drastic and sudden decision to demolish McCarthy's building based solely upon a report by a City inspector who was neither a licensed architect or engineer. The inspector never made a structural inspection, never entered the building, and later stated under oath that he observed only "non-hazardous" conditions that were "not major." The arbitrary power of the Guiliani Administration to target by unchecked fiat which buildings get destroyed is leading to a dramatic reconfiguration of the City's neighborhoods. We believe the McCarthy lawsuit will show that affordable housing is being eradicated for the benefit of avaricious real estate interestsþand we call this a pernicious scheme of class cleansing. We urge the media to investigate the circumstances of these 1500 demolitions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Fri Sep 11 11:08:26 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id LAA24691 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Fri, 11 Sep 1998 11:08:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts3-11.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.143]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id LAA24678 for <>; Fri, 11 Sep 1998 11:08:20 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980911110212.006b440c> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 11:02:12 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Saturday, Say 'Phooey' on Vallone Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk Saturday -- SAY 'PHOOEY' ON VALLONE WHAT: DEMONSTRATE AGAINST PETER VALLONE -- HE'S UNFIT TO BE GOVERNOR Demonstrate against Peter Vallone at the Labor Day Parade, held Saturday, September 12. WE WILL MEET --- at 45th St. and Fifth Ave. at 10:45 a.m. (Northwest corner) to get posters and flyers. The politicians will lead off the parade (which starts at 11 a.m. at 44th and 5th), so as soon as Vallone walks by, we will follow him with posters and flyering the public watching the parade. If you miss us at 10:45, you can catch up with us around 51st St. WHEN: Saturday, September 12. We meet at 10:45 AM WHERE: NorthWest Corner of 45th Street and Fifth Avenue The parade will stop at two points, one at St. Patricks to say hello to the Cardinal, and again at 68th St. where there's a grandstand. (We hear that Rudy G. will be speaking there). The parade will then continue of Fifth Avenue to 72nd St., turn east over to Madison. We may stop at 68th St. depending on Vallone. WHY? Some have asked this, especially as the zoning proposal has already been voted by City Council. It's called accountability. Politicians like Vallone will continue to walk over neighborhoods and tenants, catering to developers and landlords unless there's a measure of accountability. Vallone is also no friend of tenants. His former Chief of Staff is Joe Strasburg, who now heads of the Rent Stabilization Association, the largest Landlord group in NYC. Vallone introduced Local Law 4 in 1994 that effectively brought Vacancy Decontrol to NYC. It's also a bit of fun. Last week we protested Vallone at WABC-TV and again at NY1. The demonstrations were spirited and the word got out that Vallone is accepting 'bribes' from theater owners, developers and professional bundlers in order to deliver city council votes. At the NY1 Gubernatorial Debate, Vallone was asked by the moderator, Domonic Carter, how he could defend his taking money from developers in order to secure zoning changes. Vallone lied and said, "I don't know who the developers are -- they're nonexistent." But Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes charged back... "it's a matter of public record." Indeed, it is. A recent front page of Crains Business reported Vallone's big bucks are coming from any number of developers who will benefit by redeveloping Clinton/Hell's Kitchen. Newsday also reported that Vallone's son, Peter Vallone, Jr. "charged at and cursed" one of our demonstrators. Looks like he's just taking after the old man. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Mon Sep 14 14:25:01 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id OAA13073 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:25:01 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts3-9.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.141]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id OAA13069 for <>; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:24:56 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980914141836.006b05b8> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:18:36 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Election Primary Recommendations Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk We were hoping to have more analysis in our recommendations for tomorrow's Democratic Primary, and we still might send out something later today, but just to get something out, we recommend: GOVERNOR: Anyone but Peter Vallone. Seriously, all candidates have strengths and weaknesses, but the one thing we are sure is that Vallone is, has been, and always will be an enemy of tenants and neighborhoods. He took what we consider a bribe to push through the Eighth Avenue Air Rights rezoning plan, undermined the Clinton Special District that protects tenants and he instituted defacto Vacancy Decontrol in City Council in 1994. Vote for Hynes, LaRocca or Ross-McCaughey, but not Vallone. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We're leaning for Oliver Koppel. Spitzer is a nightmare and is buying his way to the election. It came out yesterday that Spitzer bought Virginia Fields endorsement (doesn't surprise us) and he gets tons of money from Real Estate. Dennis Vacco must be defeated and Katherine Abate and Evan Davis have been unable to jump start their campaigns. Koppel has the best chance when you combine electability and reasonableness. Stay away from Elliot Spitzer. US. SENATOR: At this point Charles Schumer probably has the best chance of defeating Al D'Amato. There are things we like about Mark Green, but electability (never a sole consideration) is imporant here. We are not aware of any City Council or State Assembly races. STATE SENATE: In Queens, we recommend Ed Sederbaum over the incumbant Onorato. On Manhattan's West Side, both Eric Schneiderman and Dan O'Donnell are credible candidates. It's a difficult decision and we're still wrestling whether or not to make a recommendation (if we do, we'll send it out later). Get out and vote! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Tue Sep 15 03:59:57 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id DAA12680 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Tue, 15 Sep 1998 03:59:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts2-15.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.131]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id DAA12671 for <>; Tue, 15 Sep 1998 03:59:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980915035333.006bdbfc> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 03:53:33 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Break the Peter Vallone Cycle of Corruption Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk In tomorrow's Democratic Primary, remember that City Council Speaker Peter Vallone: * took campaign bribes to sell out the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen neighborhood to developers, * has taken large amounts of money from the landlord/real estate lobby, * his former chief of staff Joe Strasburg now heads up the landlord group Rent Stabilization Association, * brought permanent defacto Vacancy Decontrol to New York City tenants (no, it wasn't Pataki, it was Vallone in 1994), * his son, Peter Vallone, Jr. was reported to have attacked a Vallone protester at the WABC-TV gubernatorial debate on September 6 (Newsday, September 7, 1998. Several Vallone supporters, who looked like hired thugs, participated in the attack, but Vallone's son was the only one identified by Newsday) * on September 14, a Vallone supporter, who was caught tearing down anti-Vallone flyers, attacked and shoved two Clinton residents. He was followed to the McManus Democratic Club that supports Vallone. BREAK THE CYCLE OF CORRUPTION Vote for any gubernatorial candidate other than Peter Vallone. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Thu Sep 24 04:28:37 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id EAA14517 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:28:37 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts3-3.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.135]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id EAA14513 for <>; Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:28:30 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980924042133.006bc7b0> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:21:33 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Tenants Online: 9/24/98 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: Precedence: bulk Tenants Online 9/24/98 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Housekeeping and Note to AOL users * Meeting Notice * Demolitions Followup * On Peter Vallone * Charas Community Center, 3 Gardens, Sold At Auction (Met Council) * Rent Guidelines Board Confirms 2 and 4 Percent Hikes (Met Council) Met Council's monthly paper, Tenant/Inquilino, is available on TenantNet. Listen to Met Council's Housing Notebook, Thursdays at 7 p.m., on WBAI, 99.5 FM TenantNet is not affiliated with Met Council. IF YOU'RE SERIOUS, SEE... (the ugly side of Peter Vallone) http://hellskitchen.net/develop/vallone/money/index.html BUT IF YOU'RE BORED SILLY? Play "Peter Vallone Concentration" at: http://hellskitchen.net/develop/vallone/concentration/vallone.html BETTER THAN SOAPS... "Peter Vallone Morph" at: http://hellskitchen.net/develop/vallone/morph/funnypeter.html AND WHY NOT? http://hellskitchen.net/develop/vallone/morph/funnyrudy.html http://hellskitchen.net/develop/vallone/morph/funnyfields.html AND COMING SOON... Morphs of Shel Silver, Vito Lopez and their buddy, Mike McKee! ================================================================== HOUSEKEEPING It seems like an eternity, but the Web has been with us only since around 1993. We would guess that most users weren't online until 1995 or thereabouts. TenantNet quietly passed its fourth anniversary, making TenantNet one of the "older" sites on the Web. What you see now is actually the fourth edition of TenantNet. In the late 1980's we had a little-known Bulletin Board System (BBS) that catered to a few tenant activists. In 1994, Brooklyn Health Services gave us space on their Gopher (remember Gopher?). Later in 94 and early 95 we opened the web site, first with a particularly awful leftist group called Blyth masquerading as activists. (It's loonies like them that allow politicians to dismiss and ignore the needs of regular people.) And in 1995 we took up residence at http://tenant.net. Particular thanks goes to Ron and Dimitri at The Internet Connection (http://cnct.com) who help to make TenantNet possible. If you're looking for a dial-up connection, email or web site, please consider their services. WE GET A LOT OF MAIL... And we can't always respond. There's an expression... "RTFM" which translates to "Read the F____ Manual." We ask users to please use the web site before sending us a long litany of complaints and ending with the innocuous, "What are my rights?" We also try not to answer that many questions on the web-based message board. It's not a Q&A board, but a discussion forum. Occasionally we'll pop in, but we encourage tenants talking to tenants. And occasionaly we get comments that we might (as below) reproduce on the mailing list. If you want a comment kept private, then say so. We use our judgement whether or not to identify the sender. NOTES TO AOL USERS -- WEB MESSAGE BOARD We have had to turn off access to the web-based message forum to AOL users due to one disruptive AOL user. This is unfortunate and we hope it's temporary. We have written to AOL, but only received a form response. If you are an AOL customer, you might wish to complain to them and ask them to work with us in solving this problem. Although we try to keep the forum as open as possible, we can (and do) occasionally remove messages from disruptive users, or messages that are repetitive without adding any substance. Even messages from landlords (or sympathizers) are OK as long as they add to the discussion in a substantive way. ================================================================== MEETING NOTICE Please join the Housing Task Force of Manhattan Community Board 7 for a discussion with the Department of Buildings on Wednesday, September 23, 1998, at 7 PM at Community Board 7 office, 250 West 87 Street off Broadway. Corrine Lindo of DOB will discuss how the department conducts inspections, follows up on Board and community complaints, issues violations (and how these violations are adjudicated). She will respond to questions about the department and update the task force on new initiatives and proposed legislation. Gale A. Brewer and Hector Santana Jr., co-chairs, 212-362-4008 ================================================================== DEMOLITIONS FOLLOWUP >From Jackie Bukowski, a tenant attorney, responding to the article on demolitions. You're right about the demolitions. it started with squats, east 5th Street and the like, proceeded to city owned buildings with 'inconvenient tenants" second avenue and east first street, and now is rampant. In the testimony elicited in East 5th Street, the City proceeded against two court orders to demolish the buildings. At the hearing we elicited the information from Vito Muscheiola, who was the then head of HPD demolitions that DOB does not order buildings to come down. They issue an unsafe or hazardous building order -a vacate order- which simply requires a vacate until the condition can be abated. Yes the presumption of expertise is with the agency, even though the inspectors may have scant experience - the inspector in our case had several months working for a contractor and passed a civil service test with the help of ARCO civil service books. The defendants testified that the actual demolition is ordered by HPD- Dept of Demolitions. At the time Fifith street went down Vito M. was the head, his only expertise was a business degree from Pace. No construction experience at all. His helper did drywall work for 6 months, and had no degree from anywhere. In the East 13th Street hearing on the vacate order, we had John Walsh, the construction engineer for the GM building testify that he had toured 545 E13th street and that the building was sound. Judge Wilk believed our side, especially after DOB BC Ron Livian stated that any action was discretionary on the part of HPD, and that the vacate was simply a simple way to get the squatters out. The App Div disagreed, and went with DOB's uneducated experts, over the internationally recognized engineeer John Walsh. ================================================================== ON VALLONE One tenant writes... "I am so glad you defined my own distrust of Vallone. I went to protest the 10% increase in my rent, at the City Council hearing. What a fix-up. Why do they bother having hearings when the decision has been made way in advance, and they just humiliate anyone who differs. Many thanks." And another... "I totally agree with your view on Vallone and the WFP (Working Families Party). If you start with opportunism, no one will ever have faith in you. If they do get on the ballot, they will mean nothing because they don't stand for anything..." And a third... "Am very glad to see not-so-nice comments about the not-so-nice Peter Vallone. Having lost my job due to disability, about a year ago, I noted a position available in his then-Astoria law firm. I stopped by with a resume, and was not only appalled at the shabbiness of the office, but to find out that there were "NO BENEFITS". Can a man who will not even give his own employees health insurance possibly be concerned about people in general?" ================================================================== >From Met Council's Tenant/Inquilino Charas Community Center, 3 Gardens, Sold At Auction Protest Organizers Call For Land-Sale Moratorium By Noel Prince "Ladies & Gentlemen, though we really shouldn’t be here playing for you today, because, let’s face it, you’re here to sell us out, we want you to know you don’t have to bid on Charas," Jenny Romaine of the Ninth Street Theater lectured outside One Police Plaza on July 20. "What you do comes back to you, don’t you dare bid on Charas. Don’t bid on Charas, don’t bid on the gardens." The Bread & Puppet Theater performed, Circus Amok’s brass band played, a stilt walker danced, and the Ninth Street Theater’s dragon roared at nervous cutouts of buildings & gardens. Two laurel trees roamed the crowd waiting to get in. In the auditorium inside, the Giuliani administration was auctioning off hundreds of parcels of city-owned land, including the Lower East Side’s Charas/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center and several community gardens. Approximately 300 protesters, including Met Council, the NYC Garden Coalition, the Lower East Side Collective, Coalition for a District Alternative, Queens League of United Tenants, the Green Party, the Living Theater, Guerrilla Repertory, Chinese Staff Workers, International Wow Theater Company, Eviction Watch, and Time’s Up lined up in their best urban-developer wear to fill seats and raise hell at the latest and reportedly most successful auction of public land so far this year; 254 parcels sold for a total of $19 million. Protesters demanded that communities be put before the interests of private developers. They are calling for a moratorium on the sale of public land until there is a plan which addresses its current uses and the best interests of the community. After two heartfelt warnings by a police chief on the scene that all false bidders would be arrested, 10,000 crickets were released within the auditorium to a theatrical response. Audience members stood on chairs and screamed as the auctioneer tried to reassure the crowd that the bidding would continue. Three audience members were arrested and later released. A group calling themselves Jiminy Cricket took responsibility for the action. The Lower East Side parcels are currently some of the most sought-after in the city, as the lack of any real affordable housing has inflated rents of $1,400 to $4,000 a month and climbing. When the bidding resumed, a dapper Seth Tobocman was nearly successful in buying the L.E.S. Hispanic Committee Garden—until he was asked to show his cash and quickly thrown out. The garden was then bid on by Caoimhe, who was also thrown out for lacking the approximately $60,000 on-the-spot cash payment required. Neither was arrested. The auctioneer then asked that all bidders come to the front of the stage and show their cash before bidding could continue. Before Charas/El Bohio was auctioned, a statement was read advising the bidders that the property was in litigation, but that all monies would be returned if the court ruled in Charas’ favor. Charas, located in a former public school at East Ninth Street and Avenue B, was first squatted in 1980 by six Latino activists, whose group, The Real Great Society, began as housing advocates in the mid-’60s. An invaluable part of the community, it provides performance and rehearsal space for art, dance and theater companies, studio space for visual artists, community workshops like a bike-recycling program for kids and young adults, and training programs, as well as a meeting place for dozens of local groups and organizations. It was sold for $3.15 million to a buyer decidedly unwilling to reveal his name or any plans for use of the property. The Giuliani administration would not release his name. The Lower East Side Hispanic Committee Garden was sold for $160,000, the Fourth Street Casita Garden went for $170,000, and the Sam and Sadie Koenig Andencksgarten Garden for $63,000. Community Board 3 Chair Susan Vaughn and a group of her neighbors bought a private garden at 251 E. 7th St. for $150,000 for private use, after having squatted it for years. ================================================================== Rent Guidelines Board Confirms 2 and 4 Percent Hikes By William Rowen, Met Council Tenant/Inquilino Meeting under the order of New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis York, on August 18 the Rent Guidelines Board let stand the rates they had voted on June 24: 2 and 4 percent increases for one- and two-year lease renewals, plus a “poor tax” of $15 a month extra if the rent is below $450 at renewal time. These rates go into effect on Oct. 1 and last until Sept. 30, 1999. The RGB’s two tenant representatives, Ken Rosenfeld and David Pagan, sued board chair Edward Hochman for suppressing a report scheduled to be released in May. The report, called the “Recent Movers Study,” analyzed the effects of the Pataki 20 percent vacancy allowance enacted as part of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997, comparing what people who had recently moved into vacant apartments paid against the rent for the same apartments in 1996. It was widely believed that Hochman refused to release the report because it showed large rent hikes, and would negatively reflect on Governor Pataki in the few months before he must face the voters in November. Justice York forced Hochman to release the report just before the Aug. 18 board meeting. Hochman was under the threat of being found in contempt of an earlier order to release the report. As it was, Hochman released both the suppressed June 2 version, and a later, sanitized Aug. 6 version using some less egregious data. Hochman and the city's attorneys failed to appear before Justice York on Aug. 26 for a hearing on compliance with the court's directive to release the study. York fined them $375 in legal fees to the tenants’ lawyer, Jerry Goldfeder, for failing to appear. The hearing was rescheduled for Sept. 3. During the dispute over the court’s directive to release the reports, Chairman Hochman publicly characterized Justice York as “Legal Aid Louie,” a pejorative reference to the judge's roots as an attorney for the poor with the Legal Aid Society. A document containing Hochman’s insult was submitted to the judge on Sept. 3. Tenant/Inquilino will publish a detailed fact sheet on the new guidelines in the October issue. We are also preparing an analysis of the two reports and hope to publish it next month too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Sat Sep 26 07:35:59 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id HAA08322 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Sat, 26 Sep 1998 07:35:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts2-2.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.118]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id HAA08318 for <>; Sat, 26 Sep 1998 07:35:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980926072907.006f4034> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 07:29:07 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Chelsea tenant meeting postponed Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk The Chelsea Action Network meeting, dealing with the loss of rent regulated apartments and other issues, as previously announced for October 6, has been postponed until further notice. When the organizers notify us of a new date, we'll announce it via email. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice. From owner-nytenants-announce Tue Sep 29 21:34:20 1998 Received: (from root@localhost) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) id VAA00903 for nytenants-announce-outgoing; Tue, 29 Sep 1998 21:34:20 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tenant.cnct.com (ts2-15.ny.cnct.com [207.111.66.131]) by cnct.com (8.8.8/8.8.6) with SMTP id VAA00884 for <>; Tue, 29 Sep 1998 21:34:12 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19980929212708.006cb754> X-Sender: X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.2 (32) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 21:27:08 -0400 To: From: TenantNet <> Subject: Landlords Trade Tenants for Tourists at SROs (Voice article) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: Precedence: bulk Down in the Old Hotel Tower & Tenements Landlords Trade Tenants for Tourists at SROs Village Voice, September 30, 1998 by J.A. Lobbia On the Upper West Side, landlords converting an old rooming house into a tourist hotel are doing so much demolition work, the remaining tenants wear hardhats to the bathroom. In another building, on Amsterdam Avenue, tenants in a single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel say their landlord has offered them cash, hoping they will make way for a higher-paying clientele. And on West 94th Street, prosecutors are investigating the April death of a disabled man who succumbed to burns after workers turned off sprinklers while illegally converting the SRO to a tourist-class hotel. Throughout Manhattan, SRO tenants face an onslaught of pressure from landlords who want them to move and be replaced with more lucrative renters, usually students or tourists happy to pay $100 a night for a room. Along with demolition and co-op and condo conversions, budget hotels are slicing into the already-diminished stock of SROs, the city's most affordable private housing. Fewer than 45,000 rooms remain, down from 53,000 in 1985. That depletion threatens SRO renters, many of whom are elderly or disabled, and most of whom have incomes under $10,000 a year. Astonishingly, nearly athird pay 80 percent of their income for rent. "These tenants basically have no options because landlords aren't renting at those levels any more," says Betsy Kane of the West Side SRO Law Project. "They can move to the outer boroughs, or with relatives, or become homeless." Fifteen years ago, the city passed laws to preserve SRO housing. But now, some owners find the lure of a bustling economy and record tourism so irresistible, they break that law. Worse, the city itself often ignores it. "It's the market that's destroying SRO housing," says Terry Poe, an organizer in Kane's office. "All you have to do to ensure that that happens is to simply not interfere. That's exactly what the city has done." Under a 1983 city law, SRO owners cannot do major alterations until they win a "certificate of no harassment" from the department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD); with no certificate, landlords cannot get necessary permits from the Department of Buildings (DOB). The law often fails, partly because DOB relies on landlords to report if a building is an SRO--a fact permit applicants sometimes falsify. That provision would be scrapped under a City Council bill introduced last year by Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge. Her measure would require--rather than allow--DOB to issue stop-work orders when permits are not in place and to revoke improperly granted permits. For most of last year, Eldridge's bill languished in the council's housing committee. But earlier this month, SRO advocates were encouraged when committee chair Archie Spigner scheduled a hearing on the bill for September 18. But at the last minute, the hearing was canceled. Spigner's staff says the hearing was "deferred" because their boss was out of town. But sources wonder if two calls to Spigner opposing the bill--one from DOB and one from the city's largest landlord group--influenced the hearing's fate. "I know Archie heard from DOB and the RSA," the Rent Stabilization Association, a powerful landlord lobby, says one council source. "But we always knew they were opposed. So I'm confused why we went through this little exercise." Frank Ricci, the RSA's governmental-affairs director,told the Voice he doubted Spigner canned the hearing--which has not been rescheduled--because of a call from the RSA. Says Ricci, "What they choose to do with our comments is their business." The RSA opposes the bill because it could hurt owners of small buildings with SRO units. "Everything in this bill, the DOB commissioner already had in his power to do," Ricci adds. "I think this is just squashing a fly with a cannonball." Last October, DOB commissioner Gaston Silva testified that the measure was "draconian" in limiting DOB's discretion, though sources complain that the agency rarely exercises its options. "DOB is very prodevelopment," says one SRO attorney. "It wants to give away the store." Indeed, even HPD appears frustrated by DOB. An internal HPD memo says the Eldridge bill would help overcome "DOB's resistance" to enforcing the current law. But the bill does nothing to prevent DOB from granting permits based on wrong information, including false claims by owners that buildings are not SROs. And sometimes DOB records say owners have won a certificate of no harassment when HPD has not granted one. A five-story building at 340 Amsterdam is such an example. This summer, workers began tearing up the 35-unit SRO, combining rooms and adding new plumbing for private bathrooms, without any DOB permit. On June 5, HPD issued a stop-work order. But 20 days later, DOB granted an alteration permit. DOB spokesman Ted Birkhahn says a preliminary check of agency records indicates that owners had a no-harassment certificate; HPD sources say they have never received an application for the certificate. Birkhahn says DOB is investigating whether the certificate is valid. Pedro Ruiz, a retired restaurant worker, is one of only seven tenants who remain in the building. Through an interpreter, Ruiz, 77, said he has lived in the same tiny room with no kitchen and a shared bathroom since 1977, and would like to stay since the $119.60 rent is affordable on his pension. In the past few months, however, his landlord has offered him $14,000 to leave. So far, Ruiz said, his landlord treats him "fine. But I'm afraid that sooner or later, he will put pressure on me if all the other rooms are nice and I'm the only one left." The building was bought earlier this year by Jack Avid and managed by Ron Oved. Oved is involved with SROs throughout Manhattan and is charged in one lawsuit with harassing tenants out of a 14th Street SRO. Neither Avid nor Oved responded to calls for this story. Ironically, the city not only seems uninterested in enforcing its own laws; in some cases, it goes out of its way to reward the very landlords who break them. On its list of low-rate Manhattan hotels, the Convention and Visitors Bureau names 20 SROs, including at least seven that have undergone illegal conversions. Amazingly, some have even been the targets of city lawsuits alleging illegal conversions. Perhaps the most tragic consequence of the city's lack of enforcement came on April 6, when 55-year-old James Downey was fatally burned in a fire that broke out in his room in the St. Louis Hotel on West 94th Street. (See Voice, April 21.) Workers had turned off the sprinkler system--without required permission--to accommodate what DOB later called "completely illegal" construction. Tenants say the landlord, Rubin Margules, is turning the SRO into a tourist hotel. Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office are investigating Downey's death. SRO tenants and advocates dubbed Eldridge's bill the James Downey Bill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network for Residential Tenants TenantNet: http://tenant.net NYTenants Interactive: http://nytenant.net NYTenants Express: http://members.aol.com/nytenant email: NYtenants Discussion List: email to and in the body of the message put "subscribe nytenants". Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice.