Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Sad News: Richard Jordan has died.

The Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association
mourns the loss of our long-time Board and Executive Committee member and friend


RICHARD JORDAN
who died on July 9, 2019 after fighting long illnesses.


We offer our condolences to his wife Patricia, their daughter Orisha, their extended family, and their many friends.

Richard (Duke) Jordan, Jr. lived with his family here for over forty years. In addition to serving on the executive committee and board of the tenant association, he was a floor captain until his death.  He also served as a member of the tenant association’s legal committee before the building left Mitchell-Lama and on 5 boards of St. Phillips’ affordable housing.  In this career, Rich was the National Director of Urban Services for Boys & Girls Clubs of America (formerly Boy's Club of America). An accomplished musician, he was a consultant in Urban Planning & Youth Development to the federal government, the National Commission on Youth and Voluntary Action, the MLK Commission, the MLK Center for Youth and Non Violent Action, the International Council of Churches, the New Cities Corp. and the governments of the UK, France, Canada and Germany and others.

A memorial to celebrate his life will be in August, with further details to be announced.

Tremendous Victory for Tenants in Albany!

After years and then finally months and weeks and days of tremendous pressure by tenants, and a change in party-control of the NYS Senate (yay, elections!), we now have the 


The new law will change many things state-wide for tenants.  Instead of making it easier for landlords to replace lower-paying tenants with higher-paying tenants (a great investment tactic for hedge funds), the new law makes it easier for tenants to keep their homes.   The summary below is not complete and is not legal advice. (See some other summaries here and here.)  In addition, the laws no longer have an automatic sunset date.  They are permanent (which is probably why landlords have filed suit in federal court to undo the rent law changes). 

Learn more about the new law at our next General Tenants Meeting on Wed., September 18, 2019 at 8 PM in the Community Room with Legal Aid attorney (who played a big part in creating and promoting parts of the bill)  will be here.