Wed., Nov. 16, 202

All tenants are welcome to our 
TENANT MEETING
with Assembly Member  Danny O’Donnell

8 PM on Wed., Nov. 16, 2022
in the COMMUNITY ROOM

We'll talk about Albany and the recent elections, and building issues. 

And we'll prepare for our tenant association election too. Would you like to run? 

Please wear a mask.

VOTE!

 EARLY VOTING TODAY 9-5

at the West Side High School

101^st St. between Col. & Amsterdam

(if you can’t do stairs, enter on 102^nd Street)

TUESDAY, NOV. 8th - REGULAR VOTING

6 AM - 9 PM 

at P.S. 163 on 97^th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues

Halloween Fundraiser this Saturday Oct. 29 from noon to 6 PM!

12 to 6 PM in the lobby!

Been meaning to contribute?

Come to the lobby table

leave a check ($10 dues, $100 legal fund if you can afford it)

 sign a petition

pick up information

take some candy!

 

FUNDS, UNITY & SWEETS! 

 

 

What a meeting!

SUMMARY OF THE GENERAL TENANTS MEETING

Sept. 14, 2022

What a meeting!  In addition to many, many tenants from our building, we had tenant leaders from Park West Village, Westgate, 50 West 93rd Street, and 5 West 91st Street, among others.  We also had AM O'Donnell's chief of staff, State Sen. Brad Hoylman, and City Council Member Gale Brewer (from the district just south of ours).  The backyard was full of light, of people, and great questions.  Thanks to Ray von Dohren for setting up the sound system, to Joan Browne for staffing the greeting table, to Mr. Anonymous (at his request) for setting up the Community Room, to staff member David for helping set up the chairs, and to Jodi Brockington for the photo.  

Left to Right below: Sen. Hoylman, Sue Susman, Council Member Gale Brewer, and Gabriel Lewenstein, chief of staff to Assembly Member Danny O'Donnell. 

I. Announcements

Come to our pre-Halloween fundraiser on Sat., Oct. 29, 2022. Show your love for the tenant association and pick up some sweets for your sweetie. 

Health: Updated COVID boosters are available for free at RiteAid, CVS, Walgreen's (Duane Reade), and shortly at the Ryan Center.  There's Terrific News aAbout the New Covid Boosters (NY Times).

Safety:  If you live alone, make sure the super has your keys. (It's also required by law.)

Vermin: Mice in your apartment? Make sure the exterminator checks every single radiator, under your sink, and behind your toilet and stove to block off the entry points.  Mouse traps are not enough!

II. From the office of Assembly Member Danny O'Donnell 

Gabriel Lewenstein, Danny O'Donnell's chief of staff, announced some of the events happening in the neighborhood, including 

• Electronics recycling (which we don't need because we have it in our own backyard - just ask the super, Sako, if you have electronic equipment to recycle.)
• Rat Academy training for building supers and staff
• Volunteer clean-up of Broadway
• Meet the Commissioner of Sanitation on Wed., Sept. 21 at 6:30.  If you'd like to share questions in advance of the meeting, please submit them here. YouTube Link: Click here to watch the YouTube live stream or copy/paste this URL into your browser: https://youtu.be/WtXJwiFvQQo (advance registration not required)

Gabriel also mentioned Leijia Hanrahan, hanrahanl@nyassembly.gov in his office who can help you with tenant issues - including getting on SCRIE and DRIE (senior citizen and disabled rent increase exemption).  Other staff can help you with other issues that arise.  Contact them!

III. State Senator Brad Hoylman

Sen. Hoylman thanked Upper West Siders for voting for him in the Democratic primary for this larger and different district: until now, he has been representing lower Manhattan from east to west (including the enormous Stuyvesant Town).  The general election is November 8, 2022, and one of his primary opponents will be taking him on as an independent. 

Sen. Hoylman serves on the State Senate's judiciary committee, which is particularly important right now as Gov. Hochul considers whom to nominate to the state's highest court.  With seven members (and either one or two vacancies), these appointments can make an enormous difference in terms of redistricting, housing law, and more. 

The senator addressed specific issues and answered questions including covering these:

HOUSING He helped pass the Tenant Safe Harbor Act to keep tenants in their homes during the pandemic. 

Sen. Hoylman supports "good cause eviction" and thinks it may get passed this year or next - although these things can take years, as did the 2019 Housing Stability & Tenant Protection Act.  

Good cause eviction would protect tenants who are NOT rent regulated.  The statute would

• bar eviction except for good cause
• require renewal leases in most cases
• limit rent increases unless the landlord could show more is really needed.

ENVIRONMENT and CONGESTION PRICING  Sen. Hoylman has sponsored bills on clean energy that include labor standards and worker protection. He is concerned about congestion pricing unduly impacting outer boroughs to which traffic would be re-routed (social justice!).  

EDUCATION  The state should ensure all children get an education meeting basic secular standards, without exceptions for yeshivas or other private schools. (A recent NY Times article pointed out that of 1000 yeshiva students who took state tests, 1000 failed.)

HEALTH  Sen. Hoylman has strengthened state vaccination requirements.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION  He is promoting legislation to end discrimination against transgender and LGBQ people.

ABORTION He strongly supports women's right to full reproductive health access, including abortion. 

IV. Council Member Gale Brewer

Although Gale represents the district just south of ours, she came to our meeting and spoke about what it means to have women in the leadership in the City Council.   Gale now heads the City Council's Oversight Committee, but has introduced many bills to help us, including those on this page.  They range from women's and tenants' rights to historical buildings and dark store fronts. 

TONIGHT: Meet State Sen. Brad Hoylman and talk about building issues

Come to our Tenant Meeting this evening at 8 in the backyard.

8-8:30 PM Meet State Senator Brad Hoylman, who won the Democratic primary in our new state senate district and therefore will likely become our state senator in January. (Vote on election day, Nov. 8th!)  Sen. Hoylman went from being an Eagle Scout in rural West Virginia to being a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, a Harvard Law Grad, and will likely continuing his career in the State Senate, where he was the first openly gay member.

Since being in the Senate representing a district south of ours, he’s passed 120 bills, some of them the most progressive in decades.  These include

·      The Child Victims Act (with AM Linda Rosenthal)

·      Police STAT Act, requiring pol. Depts. to share data on demographics of people they’re arresting & ticketing

·      GENDA: antidiscrimination protections for transgender & non-binary NYers

·      Protect Our Courts bars ICE from arresting immigrants in & around sate courthouses.

·      Strengthened vaccine requirements for kids

·      2019 rent reforms – housing affordability is biggest issue.

You'll have a chance to ask him your questions. 

8:30  PM After Sen. Hoylman, we'll hear from Assembly member Danny O'Donnell's chief of staff, Gabriel Lewenstein about what Danny has been up to. 

8:45  PM Then building issues, including mice, elevators, free updated COVID boosters,  composting, a Halloween fundraiser, and warehousing and your questions!  

Meet Sen. Brad Hoylman at our 9/14 Tenant Meeting

COME ONE, COME ALL!

Meet our next State Senator:
Senator Brad Hoylman

at our

GENERAL TENANTS MEETING

Wed., Sept. 14, 2022

8 PM

in the Backyard.

We were redistricted out of Cordell Cleare’s district – so now it’s time to meet the winner of the Democratic primary for State Senate, Brad Hoylman.  He will likely win the November election to represent us in Albany, along with Assembly Member Danny O'Donnell. 

Senator Hoylman has been representing the district south of us, including the enormous Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenant Association, for several years.

We'll also talk about building issues. 

Ask your questions, get some answers!

ALL TENANTS WELCOME. 

Please wear a mask.

 

Tossed butts and ashes cause fire

https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/
public-safety-alerts/safety-tips-prevention/
home-high-rise-school-workplace-safety/smoking-safety/

In a former Mitchell-Lama building of the same era as ours, fire fighters managed to put out a balcony fire minutes before it spread to the entire building. 

TribecaTrib

Balcony Fire in a Tribeca High-Rise Was 'Minutes' Away from Spreading

By  Carl Glassman, Jul. 29, 2022

Excerpts:

A fire on the balcony of a 39-story high-rise in Tribeca on Friday filled the hallways of several floors with smoke, but was only minutes away from becoming much worse, a fire official said. No injuries were reported.

Twenty units and nearly 80 firefighters responded around 5:50 p.m. to the blaze on a 32nd floor apartment balcony of 80 North Moore Street, one of three towers in the Independence Plaza complex. It took about 30 minutes to bring the flames under control, a Fire Department spokesman said.

Firefighters battled the blaze as it was burning the terrace door, 1st Battalion Chief Gary Cline told the Trib. “A few more minutes and it would have been a very different story. It would have burned through the door,” said Cline, who commanded the operation.

….

The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.

Notices posted in the building's hallways in April by the complex's Stellar Management warned of “numerous complaints” from tenants “who have found lit cigarettes