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.

Rent Laws End TODAY at Midnight! Call Gov. Cuomo to Repeal Vacancy Decontrol

ALL DAY MONDAY 

Call Governor Cuomo

Cuomo: Tenants Are Watching & We Will Remember. 

CALL:  (518) 474-8390, press 3

Sample Script for Gov:  

“Hello, my name is ____________ and I’m a tenant.  I’m calling to tell the Governor to strengthen the rent laws and end deregulation.  Renewing the rent laws is not enough – the Gov. must strengthen the rent laws and end deregulation. If he does not do this I will never vote for him again.”

A week ago, Gov. Cuomo called for stronger rent laws and an end to deregulation. Now he says the best he can do is renew them in their current weakened form. A straight extender of the rent laws "as is" would result in a steady loss every year of rent-protected apartments in NYC and the three suburban counties, and an ultimate end of the program. 

It is likely that this issue will not be decided by Monday.  If so, call Cuomo's office again on Tuesday.  The more calls he gets on this issue the better! Get your friends and neighbors to call!

Come to a picket outside Cuomo’s NYC office MONDAY 4:30 PM

4:3633 Third Avenue (between 40th & 41st Streets, Manhattan)

Video with Rich, Sue, Bones, Bobby, and many others: Tenants in action!

Check out this Multihop.TV video of tenants and some of their elected officials in action - explaining, riding to Albany, rallying, getting arrested, all to get Gov. Cuomo to repeal vacancy deregulation so affordable housing will no longer be lost to landlord greed.

Rent laws are expiring. Vigil Sunday, June 14, 2015, from 6-9 PM at Gov. Cuomo's office in Manhattan

Governor Cuomo: "Step Up or Step Down- We Can't Afford to Wait!"  

VIGIL: SUNDAY 6-9 PM

Cuomo's Manhattan office, 

633 Third Ave. (40th-41st St.)

Statement from the Real Rent Reform Campaign Regarding Governor Cuomo’s Ever-Changing Position on Stronger Rent Laws

This morning’s announcement by Governor Cuomo that there is “not enough time” to pass stronger rent laws for New York’s 2.5 million rent-regulated tenants is an unacceptable abdication of responsibility and leadership. 

Less than a week ago, the Governor claimed to be ready to fight for tenants by ending the failed experiment of vacancy decontrol and closing numerous landlord-friendly loopholes that were the product of corruption in Albany.  Today, tenants learned that those words were as empty and insincere as they had feared.

Governor Cuomo was elected to clean up Albany and make it functional again.  Instead, today’s statements are the equivalent of waving the white flag of surrender to corruption and dysfunction.

To be clear, if the Governor chooses to show the leadership and commitment that we know he is capable of, there is enough time for him to do his job.  There is enough time for him to keep his word.  There is enough time for him to do the right thing for millions of rent-regulated tenants in New York City and the three suburban counties who have suffered at the hands of Albany corruption for too long, by passing the stronger rent laws that he promised.   The Governor must not surrender his responsibility now.

Governor Cuomo needs encouragement to fight for our rights as tenants

After saying he just wanted the rent laws renewed as is,  Governor Cuomo recently wrote that he supports the repeal of vacancy decontrol (also known as vacancy deregulation)*. That is a result of tenant pressure!  (Go, Tenants!)  Now he's waffling again - saying it's too late to negotiate about the tax break for developers (421-A). 

Further, having noted that vacancy decontrol is the main reason NYC is losing affordable apartments faster than it can build them,  the Governor said that an alternative might be to just raise the rent amount at which a vacant apartment can be permanently de-regulated. 

Encourage him to repeal vacancy decontrol and re-regulate apartments, and to cap MCI increases.  He can do it!

Call him: Albany Phone: 518-474-8390,  Fax:  518-474-1513,   NYC Phone: 212-681-4580 

Join Governor on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Governor-Andrew-Cuomo/177009292330292

And keep Assembly Speaker Heastie strong on the issue as well:

For more details on message to leave for Speaker Heastie and NYS Assembly members, please see:http://www.strongerrentlaws.com

Sad News: Irvarita Watson has died

We mourn the loss of our friend and neighbor

IRVARITA WATSON

"Rita," as she was known, died about two weeks after a fall in her apartment leading to hospitalization.  She was 83 years old.  She was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and outlived her brother and other family.  She wanted to be buried with her family in Poughkeepsie.   

Rita had a fluffy white dog for many years familiar to many neighbors.   She enjoyed her solitude, but was always available to share her time with neighbors.   Our condolences to her friends and close neighbors Linda Tyler and Barbara Geller.