Fair fouled up Mother’s Day
To The Editor:
I find it hard to comprehend how any community board could have allowed a street fair to be held on Sun. May 14, Mother’s Day, on Broadway at 14th St. You’d have to be an imbecile not to have understood that traffic would be tied up for blocks and blocks as it was, that emergency vehicles would not be able to get through and that, additionally, there would be a danger posed to pedestrians because of such an event.
Yet, despite the obvious, and despite repeated complaints from residents and businesses regarding the indiscriminate issuance of licenses for street fairs, one was allowed to be held on Broadway this Sunday, with the resulting traffic gridlock as well as danger to pedestrians as they struggled to cross clogged intersections.
We at the W. 13th St. 100 Block Association and other responsible community organizations and businesses have begged and pleaded with Community Board 2 and local politicians to bring the number of street fairs in and around the Village down to a sensible level, but our pleas have gone unheeded.
It is incredible that a group of schlock vendors, from out of the community, can tie up our streets, causing noise and air pollution and loss of local business revenue and we citizens can do nothing about it. Are we so hard up for the sweat socks, T-shirts and kebabs that are sold at every one of these fairs that we must tolerate them, though they cause a myriad of problems for us?
Ostensibly, the street fairs are for the benefit of community groups, but the reality is that the true beneficiaries are the promoters, such as Clearview Festivals, that rake in the dollars for obtaining licenses from the city to conduct these events that so disrupt our lives.
Though some money does filter down to a few community organizations, do we really have to have four street fairs for each of the Republican clubs of the Village? Why are we called upon at all to support any political organization by allowing them to use our streets? It seems to me that is a form of taxation for a partisan cause. In any case, are there really four Republican clubs within the confines of the Village?
My complaints regarding this situation are not limited to political clubs. I would like to know who is auditing the so-called nonprofits that are supposed to benefit from the street fairs? Are they truly nonprofit and who do they service?
We have good reason to believe that the entire process for obtaining the licenses for street fairs has been so manipulated and politicized that the true interest of our community has been constantly ignored and ultimately undermined. We therefore call for a revision of the entire system, which we sincerely believe has failed to achieve the communal goal for which it was originally intended.
Gary A. Tomei
Tomei is president, W. 13th St. 100 Block Association
‘Legal’ tenant harassment
To The Editor:
Re “Stop-work still in effect at former artists’ squat” (news article, April 26); “After stop-work order lifts, focus shifts to 5th St.” (news article, May 3); and “Buildings threatens to revoke permit on E. 5th St.” (news article, May 10):
The tenants of 515 E. Fifth St. would like to thank The Villager for bringing our situation to the attention of the community.
First, a short correction: We don’t contend that the excavation work in our basement and backyard, or any work being done in the building, is necessarily illegal. We question whether the landlord has the proper permits for this work and whether the permits and work comply with each other and with building and zoning laws. With nearly all Department of Buildings permits currently self-certified, the fox is guarding the hens, or better said, the farmer is letting the fox guard the hens. There is apparently little or no vetting, oversight or enforcement. Inspectors presume that landlords and their architects have not lied, and call tenant objections “bogus.”
Most strategies being utilized to “liberate” rent-regulated housing and/or enlarge buildings in ways once frowned upon by city lawmakers and planners seem to be operative in our one little tenement. “Fake demolition” is currently getting some press as is the creative use of zoning laws to allow for “pentazines” (penthouse mezzanines). Less well known is the exploitation of community facilities and Quality Housing Program bonuses allowing for unwarranted bulk enlargements. Tenants are either forced out immediately (Division of Housing and Community Renewal-sponsored demolition threats) or endure the sanctioned loss of their legally guaranteed warranty of habitability (D.O.B.-sponsored metamorphosis of occupied buildings into hard-hat areas). Concomitantly, small offers of compensation are offered to tenants in exchange for their leases. A vacant building is their endgame.
The fake-demolition scam, the first tactic employed against us, works as follows: By renaming the gutting of vacant apartments “demolition,” D.H.C.R. says to landlords: “You may now apply with us for this permit even though you don’t actually plan to tear down the building, and you may also now legally apply for eviction proceedings.” Previously mandatory hearings, now made discretionary, fast-track the process making this one of the only legal, and an increasingly effective, means to displace rent-regulated tenants en masse. Few tenants can come together soon enough to organize any meaningful resistance to these seemingly legal strong-arm tactics.
In our case, we believe the D.H.C.R. application was withdrawn when the owner, Benjamin Shaoul, realized that tenants would not be easily forced out. The Villager quotes Michael Soleimani of Magnum Management (Shaoul’s nom de guerre) as saying that the demolition application “was no longer economically feasible” (“After stop-work order lifts, focus shifts to 5th St.,” news article May 3). We understand this to mean that so long as this application was active, only demolition-related work could go forward. It was, therefore, abandoned for practical financial reasons. A new work permit for major alteration allowed them to continue work and provided them with another method of coercion: the conversion of the building into a construction site, this time through the complicit issuance of invasive work permits from D.O.B.
The recently concluded D.O.B. audit of our building “failed” with 19 objections. Shaoul has been given 10 days to respond, but D.O.B. procedure allows for at least three more possible 10-day extensions. Meanwhile, work is allowed to go on. Shaoul has now escalated the pace of work, probably hoping to finish the job before it is stopped. Maybe it takes more than an inspection by the acting D.O.B. Manhattan borough commissioner. Maybe those responsible for administering the laws should have to live here and experience the pounding six days a week beginning at 7 a.m., the loss of privacy, the loss of heat and/or hot water for days with no Department of Housing Preservation and Development inspector in sight, the damaged walls, leaky ceilings and midnight deliveries of lumber. I bet they would more vigorously enforce the laws if they did.
For now, we hope D.O.B. will make the right decision and revoke the permit immediately.
Those interested in more details or who have relevant information on Shaoul should contact me through Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).
Monte P. Schapiro
Schapiro is a member, 515 E. Fifth St. Tenants Association
Food for thought
To The Editor:
Re “Chef’s love of food started early in northern Italy” (news article, May 3):
I just read your article about Villa Mosconi. I do believe the spelling for Razzazco is Rasasco. I don’t recall that Monte’s was ever called Rasasco — but always Monte’s for the last 50 years.
Rosemary Bosco
Webb’s columns are great
To The Editor:
Re “Hooked on The Villager” (letter, by Lorraine R. Colville, May 3):
Congratulations on an honor well deserved.
I agree with everything your reader Lorraine R. Colville stated so beautifully. Ed Koch is also my favorite movie critic, but I must add another favorite Villager writer, Arthur Webb. I think he’s great. Thank you for your concern and good work.
S.P. Rieger
E-mail letters to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 145 Sixth Ave., ground floor, NY, NY 10013. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar and libel.
