Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Summary of General Tenant Meeting on March 18, 2015

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
  • Our annual Pot Luck Supper will honor Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer this year.  It will be on Saturday, May 16, 2015, from 6-9 p.m. and all tenants (and friends) are welcome. Those who bring food or (non-alcoholic) beverage for 8-10 people, or who work to set up, receive food, greet those coming in and collect money, or clean up, will come in for free.  For all others, it's $10/person or $15/household in the building.  
  • Thanks to two new floor captains for volunteering: Marlene Williamson and Brenda Marshall.   For all floor captains: If there are any new tenants on your floor, make sure to tell the CPG Tenant Association's executive committee about them - to ensure they can take advantage of the 60-day limit to get documentation on apartment improvements affecting their rental status. 
  • Two tenants are being honored:  Manny Vega, whose work has just been bought by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Lenore Richter, who has rallied other tenants to keep more than one elderly tenant at home (rather than in a nursing home), even if it means cleaning the home with her own hands, arranging for aides, and more. With her husband Glenn, Lenore has been the motive force behind charitable food distribution.   

OUR SPEAKER: 

Legal Aid Attorney Kenny Schaeffer, vice chair of Met Council on Housing, a lifelong Upper West Sider, and former attorney with then-Assembly Member Ed Sullivan, and with One Stop, spoke about tenant issues and Albany.

The background:  The Democrats (generally pro-tenant) control the NYS Assembly.  There is a new Assembly Speaker (replacing the indicted Sheldon Silver), Carl Heastie, who seems very supportive of tenant issues. The Republicans (generally pro-big real estate) control the NYS Senate. Its speaker, Dean Skelos, may be facing federal investigation.   

That leaves Governor Cuomo as the great unknown. Despite his having worked for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he is the biggest recipient of real estate contributions, and has been known to play one side against the other.  (Rather than working to elect Democrats to the State Senate, he supported many Republicans.)  

Thursday, March 5, 2015

General Tenant Meeting - Wed., March 18, 2015 at 8 PM

  • The rent laws expire in June!  Can we save our homes and re-regulate market apartments?
  • City vs. State? 
  • Albany after Sheldon Silver
Come hear activist and attorney KENNY SCHAEFFER

Refreshments and good conversation.
ALL TENANTS WELCOME!

In our Community Room