Sad news: Sujata Prasad has died.

We mourn the loss of yet another tenant this month:  Sujata Prasad, known to many of us as “Suzy.”

 

SUJATA PRASAD

  

Suzy died on June 22, 2015 after a difficult hospitalization of several weeks.  Although born in 1972, Suzy was childlike.  Many of us enjoyed her smile and affection.

The Puja funeral rites are

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24^th, 2015

Viewing from 11 AM to 1 PM

Cremation at 2 PM

Gerald Funeral Home, 88-04 43^rd Avenue, Elmhurst

  

Our condolences go to her family:  Her mother Namita Prasad,  her sisters Sulekha and Sushama Prasad, and her nephews Anthony and Nicholas Bonano.

Tentative Rent Laws Deal Doesn't Help Tenants Much

The Albany deal on the rent laws will lead to 87,500 apartments being deregulated.

Call Gov. Cuomo at 518 474-8390 or 212 681-4580 and tell him to go back to the drawing board and come up with a deal that protects tenants.

Issue	What tenants need	What Cuomo is offering
Vacancy deregulation (motivating landlords to oust regulated tenants, losing affordable apartments forever)	Repeal of vacancy deregulation	Rent at which vacant apartments can be de-regulated goes up from $2500 to $2700 and is indexed to Rent Guidelines Board orders.
MCI and IAI increases Major Capital Improvement and Individual Apartment Improvement rent increases (now permanent)	Limit the increases to end when the cost of the improvement has been re-paid.	Reduce the permanent increase by 1/3.
Vacancy bonus Right now, landlords get a 20% rent increase just because an apartment has become vacant. That motivates them to kick out tenants to get to the vacancy decontrol threshold.	Cut the bonus.	No change
Rent law renewal term As long as vacancy deregulation is in effect, we’re losing affordable apartments.	One year renewal	Four years
Preferential rent Tenants renting at below the legal regulated rent (LRR) can be hit with LRR increases on lease renewal.	Close the loophole	No change

Albany Close to Deal on Rent Regulation - How Does the Reported “Framework” Affect Neighborhoods?

June 23rd, 2015Albany Close to Deal on Rent Regulation - How Does the Reported “Framework” Affect Neighborhoods? Thomas J. Waters Tweet The New York...

CSSNY.ORG

From our Assembly Member regarding the Rent Laws

EXCERPT FROM LETTER FROM ASSEMBLY MEMBER DANIEL O'DONNELL:

As you most likely know, our city's rent laws sunset at midnight tonight. I write now to assure you that my colleagues in the Assembly and I are doing all we can to make sure that the laws are not only renewed, but also strengthened. However, that may not happen by the deadline at midnight. Please be assured that the laws will be reauthorized before the session concludes and will almost certainly be retroactive to the date of expiration. If there are several days where the rent laws have technically expired, tenants should know that they are still protected. 

Here are some key facts about tenant rights in relation to the expiring rent laws:

• All rent-stabilized tenants' existing leases will remain in effect.
• Tenants in rent-controlled apartments are also protected.
• By law, any tenant whose lease expires in the coming days should already
  have received a renewal lease. This lease will still be in effect once the tenant signs it, even if the rent laws expire tonight.
• If your landlord attempts to contradict any of the above information, or if
  they harass or threaten you in any way, please contact my office at
  (212) 866-3970 and ask to speak with my housing specialist.
• You can also call 311 for assistance, where an expanded team of
  housing experts is available to help you. Public Advocate Tish James has also established a special hotline: (212) 669-7250 or gethelp@pubadvocate.nyc.gov.

The Assembly is firmly on the side of tenants. In May, we passed A7526 to strengthen 

the rent laws. I am proud to be a sponsor of that bill, as well as several other important 

bills that improve protections for tenants. To learn more about my housing bills, please 

click here. To read my most recent community newsletter, click here.

   

I look forward to seeing many of you back in the district once session ends. Please 

feel free to contact my community office about this or any other matter.

Sad News: two deaths - Sol Frieder and Marilyn Kravitz

The Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association mourns the loss of our friend and neighbor

SOL FRIEDER

for a long time, the oldest working actor in the United States.

The funeral will be this WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2015 at Noon

at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel

630 Amsterdam Ave. at W. 91^st Street

followed by the burial at the Mount Zion Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens.

Our condolences go to his niece Dana Lehrman, the rest of his immediate family, and his long-time companion Anna, who helped care for him before and after he went into the Jewish Home following hospitalization.

Sol’s sparkle and wit will be missed.   Read an obituary for him from Actors Equity newsletter below

In Memoriam

One of the oldest working actors in Equity has died. Sol L. Frieder, born in Stuttgart, Germany, the youngest of nine children, endured Swiss labor camps for 30 months during WWII. He arrived in New York in 1949 and became an accountant. Then, in 1958, auditioned for The Diary of Anne Frank (Gateway Playhouse, Bellport, NY), which earned him his Equity card. He appeared in six Broadway productions, including Cabaret, opposite Lotte Lenya, and Fiddler on the Roof. Off-Broadway:   The Primary English Class, with Diane Keaton, and an Israel Horovitz trilogy, earning him a prestigious Hirschfeld caricature (2 Ninas). His final stage bow at age 90: Athol Fugard’s Have You Seen Us?  Films include Love and Death; Next Stop, Greenwich Village and Music Box. With his final film, John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo, he became one of the oldest actors working under a SAG-AFTRA contract at the age of 94. Sol L. Frieder lived to act, and he did that to the very end.

— Lori Tan Chinn. 
__________________________________

Marilyn Kravitz
who trained as a school psychologist, passed away during the night of June 14-15, 2015.  Our condolences to her brother and her close friend Alisa Doctoross.

Funeral arrangements to be announced.