To the editor:
Today I looked at my Southbridge Towers maintenance bill and thought to myself how low it is for my apartment in this neighborhood. Anyone living elsewhere would not believe it. Why would anyone, who has an income that is “Mitchell-Lama Acceptable”, and is in their right mind, risk losing this on the gamble of privatization, which sooner or later must fail, resulting in luxury level maintenance’s. Many don’t realize a good thing until they lose it.
People in slums pay three times what I pay. Most of us did not move into Southbridge to obtain equity, which will get cooperators who want to live here for many years, nothing but huge increases in maintenance. Whatever happened to common sense, logic and being realistic? Let’s get out of our sponsor-induced stupor.
Why is a Black Book, which is an acceptable reconstitution plan, nowhere in sight? Let our cooperators read the concerns of the Attorney General, which the board/sponsor does not what us to see. Information regarding progress of the Black Book should be disseminated by the board/sponsor, but has to be gotten using the Freedom of Information Law. What’s the problem?
The financials in the offering plan are unacceptable vague platitudes. The truth has no agenda. The board of directors has a fiduciary responsibility to honestly look out for all the cooperators. Our board is the sponsor for privatization and says they are looking out for all, but there is an agenda, which is their obsessive desire to privatize at any price. Now they have proposed a three-term limit, for more time to move their agenda along. For forty years, we have done fine with two terms. This privatizing board has decided to spend $5,000-plus to rent voting machines for this purpose. We were not even asked if we wanted a vote.
Too many will be hurt at the expense of others. Unfortunately, those who will be hurt have been convinced that they won’t be.
Steve Seifer
