The House Committee is hosting another Meet Your Neighbors event, in building 2 (573-575-577 Grand St) on Thursday at 7:00 pm.
Come say hello to your neighbors, find out what they think about our open letter to the board. Reasonable? Presumptuous? Let’s talk about it!
At our meeting last month, Joseph Hanania again brought up the idea of using the existing dock at the fireboat house for an East River Ferry stop. He set up a petition last year that you can still sign your name to if you like the idea.
Earlier this year, the NYC Economic Development Corporation released a report indicating that ferry service has had an impact on real estate prices near stops in Brooklyn and Queens. And the Grand Street stop is being considered for future expansion.
Today’s New York Times has an article about some of the people displaced so many years ago when the blocks southeast of Delancey and Essex were razed.
It’s a short, nostalgic follow-up to the article published in March about how local politicians kept the lots empty for decades rather than build more affordable housing in the neighborhood.
The Times’ version of the story is undoubtedly not the only one, but the two articles together, along with a new mayor who has made affordable housing a priority, signal a new round of attention on our neighborhood just as plans for a new development called “Essex Crossing” are finally moving forward.
Over the past 24 hours, the letter below has been slipped under every door at East River Co-op. Thank you to everyone to contributed to copies and distribution.
I’ve also just delivered copies to the management office for each board member, with the following cover note:
Enclosed please find an open letter to the board of directors distributed to all cooperators.
I was asked to moderate an open meeting on April 30 for all shareholders to discuss the board’s March 17 memo on carrying charges. With input from other participants, I prepared the enclosed letter to summarize the issues raised at that meeting. It is the hope of those who attended our meeting that you will have the time to address these questions.
May I add that I think our meeting was constructive and positive, convened out of a natural desire for more information. The public airing of these questions is not intended to antagonize, only to encourage a broader and more in-depth dialogue. I hope you accept this in that spirit.
Cooperatively yours,
(signed) Jeremy Sherber
If you’d still like to add your name (virtually) to the letter, please do so in the comments section below.
Gulick Park and Abrons Arts Center are bringing outdoor movies to the neighborhood this summer, on Thursday evenings in July.
You can help select the two movies to show in Gulick Park with this online survey by ranking your preference for a pool of ten films: Crossing Delancey, The Black Stallion, Despicable Me, E.T., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Manhattan, Toy Story, and Wall-E.
The Lower East Side Ecology Center is having their annual Summer Party on June 1, 5 pm – 8 pm, right across the highway at the East River Fireboat House.
LESEC hosts e-waste recycling events all over the city, promotes composting and energy efficiency, and helps to maintain our big green neighbor, the East River Park.
It’s a family event, children under 12 are free. For adults, tickets are $60 in advance or $75 at the door.
We’re sharing this draft online so that cooperators who attended our open meeting last Wednesday can comment before we print and distribute later this week.
As you can see, we’ve tried to summarize the questions that came up specifically in reference to the co-op’s financial position and the need to increase maintenance charges. Other quality-of-life issues that came up were not included in this letter, though hopefully can be addressed in some other meaningful way in the future.
Please leave comments below. If you are willing to virtually add your name to this letter (will not print but will be online) please indicate in the comments. And if you are able to help distribute the letter to apartments in your section, please email hello@cooperativelyyours.org.
Apparently the complaint “United States of America v East River Housing Corp” we distributed on Wednesday and posted to this website yesterday was not the most recent version. The complaint was amended in January to include two more complainants — two more cooperators whose requests to keep pets in the co-op were denied. The amended complaint can be read here.
The complaint alleges that “individuals who require service or emotional support animals because of a disability” were not offered “reasonable accommodations” by the co-op. Furthermore, based on the existence of more than one case, the complaint alleges a “pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights guaranteed by the Fair Housing Act.”
Thanks to those of you who came out in the rain Wednesday night — we had a positive meeting with about 100 cooperators to discuss various financial and quality-of-life issues at East River.
For reference, here’s the memo the board sent all shareholders on March 17. The fuel surcharge has been added permanently to our monthly carrying charges, and a further increase is hinted at, with some explanation of how expenses are increasing.
