You might need to bring your own chair to our next meeting on June 9.

After our recent open meeting on April 30, we were informed that any subsequent use of the community room by Cooperatively Yours would be subject to the same $325 fee required of anyone making a reservation.

Tommy Loeb, who had arranged the April 30 reservation, wrote the board on our behalf to request that the fee be waived in order to facilitate the free and open meeting of cooperators. This weekend we received the board’s reply: our request has been denied.

The board argues that Cooperatively Yours is not any sort of official shareholder committee, and that no private group should get special treatment. You can read their letter here.

We appreciate the board’s sense of fairness, and agree that Cooperatively Yours has no official designation here at East River. But we do still think there are grounds to expect free use of the community room. As Tommy Loeb cited in his request to the board for a waiver, NY Real Property Law Section 230 is clear about our rights:

Tenants’ groups, committees or other tenants’ organizations shall have the right to meet without being required to pay a fee in any location on the premises including a community or social room where use is normally subject to a fee which is devoted to the common use of all tenants in a peaceful manner, at reasonable hours and without obstructing access to the premises or facilities. No landlord shall deny such right.

The board replies, “shareholders of the cooperative are not tenants,” and therefore are not protected by this statute. But the legal protection of cooperators under New York’s landlord-tenant laws is one of the fundamental distinctions between a condo and a coop.

So we’ll find another way to meet. Please mark Monday, June 9 at 7:00 pm on your calendars — we’re inviting board members to address the questions raised at our last meeting, and hope to have another productive conversation. Location TBD!

Essex Crossing will be a transformative project for our neighborhood, turning six acres of under-used land into 1.9 million square feet of residential, commercial, and community space. Nothing between here and the F train will ever be the same again.

Though the overall development plan has been approved by our local community board and by the City Council, specific designs have not yet been finalized. Next Wednesday, community members are invited to a second visioning session for the park that will be nestled right in the middle of the development along Broome Street. The new park is planned as part of phase 1, set to begin construction spring 2015.

The public discussion takes place on May 28, starting at 7:15 pm at Grand Street Settlement, 80 Pitt Street.

The Lo-Down, our favorite local news source, is sponsoring a panel discussion on June 2 titled “The Grand Street Cooperatives — a Look at the Past, Present, and Future“.

Moderated by Lo-Down editor Ed Litvak and featuring guests from the neighborhood (including East River cooperators), the 2-hour program will explore “the unique history of the co-ops, how the community has changed, and what lies ahead for these diverse residents.”

Sounds right up our alley!

More info and RSVP here and here.

Can you help us out?

There was a sense at our last meeting that this group — Cooperatively Yours — could have  a real impact on life at our coop if we could have a stronger organization that promoted activities and encouraged engagement all year long.

To that end, it would help a great deal if we had a better sense of who was on our mailing list, reading the website, and following along on Facebook and Twitter:

Who are you? What are you involved in? And how would you be willing to help us even more?

Please fill out the brief survey below and encourage your neighbors to do so as well — it’ll give us a much better idea of where to go from here.