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Residents call to hip-hop stars for help

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

January 16, 2008

Mary Fountain, a resident of 1520 Sedgwick in the Bronx is fighting to keep the building affordable to tenants. 1520 Sedgwick is credited as the birthplace of hip hop (Jefferson Siegel / January 14, 2008)

Now it's their turn to make some noise.

Residents at the west Bronx housing complex where the first hip-hop parties were held in the '70s have raised $11.5 million to buy their building and keep it affordable..

Only problem is real estate mogul Mark Karasick, who entered into a contract to buy the building, at 1520 Sedgwick Ave., wants $14 million for it and has not been willing to lower the offer, residents say.

"I think it's horrible of him," said Annie Jenkins, 70, a 36-year resident of the building, which houses 100 families. "Poor people need a place to live. Rents go up and we have no place to stay."

Some of the first hip-hop parties in the city were held at the building in the early 1970s by DJ Kool Herc and his sister, Cindy Campbell.

Phone calls to Karasick's office were not returned, but Dina Levy, an organizer with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, which is spearheading the effort to buy the building, speculated the developer believes he can flip the property for more money.

"It's a dirty way to make money -- on the backs of poor people," she said. "He's a billionaire on top of a billionaire. He can do a decent thing here."

In the meantime, residents have begun a Web site, www.save1520.org, to raise funds are hoping to reach out to old school rappers who want to preserve the cultural mix that lead to the creation of their music in the first place in the building where it began.

It's time for hip-hop artists to give back," said DJ Kool Herc, who spoke at a rally supporting the building's residents Tuesday. "Hip-hop has done them well, and this is the birthplace." The city has agreed to contribute several million dollars for the tenants to buy the building and convert it into a co-op, while the rest has been borrowed from lenders. Organizers are trying to keep the cost down so that residents will not be pushed out because of high monthly maintenance fees.

"Unfortunately, this building, and so many others like it, is still at risk," said Sen. Charles Schumer, who is leading the effort to pressure the developer to sell. "Despite the fact that the music we hear today on street corners and in concerts across New York would be unimaginable without [Herc's] contribution, the elements that allowed [Herc] to succeed in the '70s are now under assault."

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