From The Association

Neil Fabricant, IPNTA President

Ya Basta! Enough is Enough!

A short story about what’s happening all over New York City to one of the country’s finest housing programs: Mitchell-Lama.

Thousands of affordable housing units already have been lost. And unless the Mayor and/or City Council act quickly, we’ll lose the rest.

No more place in New York for working class families?

Here’s The Story -- It’s about our Mitchell-Lama -- Independence Plaza North -- Ground Zero.

• First, the City practically gives the developers several blocks of vacant land overlooking the Hudson River.
• The government gives them a 1% mortgage.
• The government waives the property taxes.
• The government gives them big personal tax shelters.
• The government guarantees them a 6% return on their investment.
• The government puts up 95% of the money to build the 1300+ unit high rise apartment building—Independence Plaza North.

Small Investment - No Risk-No Taxes-Big Profits. What a Deal!

• Then, HPD lets them have a $750,000, annual, no bid management contract for their nephew.
• They fire every union worker, whether s/he worked here for one year or twenty years.
• They hire an ex-cop to be their chief of security—a cop who the police force fired for one too many cases of brutality, including the beating of an elderly woman whom he put in the hospital.
• They let the place deteriorate so the elevators didn’t work, the carpeting was filthy and torn, the plumbing always broke down, apartments were flooded or without water for days, drug addicts, dealers, and hoodlums terrorize the tenants. Even the NYC Comptroller singles out IPN as a particularly nasty place, a poorly run Mitchell-Lama.

All this, even though their official financial statements say that the operating costs are at the level of a high-end luxury building!

Then, they get the feds to give them millions more – of our rent money -- to fix up the place.

They fix it up, and now -- just like we told Giuliani’s HPD and Cuomo’s HUD they would do – they are trying to sell it to an “associate”. (Before they got the government money, they said they had no such plans).

The associate, a big real estate developer, says the place is in a high-rent district, and we aren’t paying enough rent. In his words, we aren’t “rent-burdened.” If HPD approves the sale, he wants Tribeca market rents as quickly as he can get them.

Who are these guys?

They’re the Cohn family. The real estate developer is a lawyer named Laurence Gluck.

What more do they want?

They want the City to look the other way while they make as many millions of dollars as they can get away with. Wouldn’t we all?

If the City approves this sale to Laurence Gluck, they just might get away with it -- rewarded for 25 years of non-compliance with the letter and spirit of the Mitchell-Lama laws, for 25 years of mismanagement – non-management -- and worse.

We have a better idea: condemn IPN under eminent domain, sell it to the tenants, and let us manage the property. Get rid of Cohn and Gluck. Give all the stakeholders a fair shake.

We’re not rent-burdened – we’re landlord-burdened.

Ya Basta! Enough is Enough!

A Post Script from Ground Zero.

We are the thousands of tenants who live at the Northern border of Ground Zero. We saw the planes crash into the towers. We watched in horror as they collapsed, not on television, but almost on our doorstep. We breathed the smoke and toxic fumes that penetrated our doors and windows. Our kids were moved to other schools.

We were evacuated. Our neighborhood was barricaded. If we walked past Canal Street to get groceries, it was hard – sometimes impossible – to get back to our homes. Our elderly neighbors couldn’t get out for food and medicine. The Red Cross and some government agencies came to the rescue. We were –and are -- grateful.

For months we lived with the smoke and the toxic fumes. We walked around with masks over our mouths and noses, and we worried – we still worry – what the asbestos and the other toxic substances are doing to us. The barges that carried away the wreckage spread more toxic waste and fumes. For months, they woke us every day at 4 AM.

We understood and forgave the curiosity seekers. We were -- and are -- grateful for the help and the concern of everyone who did help.

But now, after all this, as our lives are settling down, as we watch the grand speeches, the plans for memorials, the patriotic fervor – and yes, the hustlers and ghouls who are appropriating our national nightmare and personal tragedy to enhance their political and business careers – Now, after all this, come the Cohns and Gluck – and their real estate deal. It’s not right.

Who are we to complain?

We ARE Tribeca! We’re the anchor of this community. We’re one in five of Tribeca’s residents. We are a mixed income, racially integrated community. We’re mostly working class, moderate income folks.

The majority of us have lived here for more than 20 years. And we get along with each other just fine. Our kids attend the neighborhood schools. And if you’re sincere about integrated, neighborhood schools, you need to save the integrated, affordable housing that already exists.

New York doesn’t need any more insider deals that destroy lives, kill our communities, and blight our kids futures—all to make a few guys richer .

It isn’t right, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Speaker. Help us save our homes.

Ya Basta!

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