Loft Board Publishes New Rules

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The Loft Board has just published a set of seven rules for public hearings in July. They have shown to be responsive to our concerns, so it’s very important to read these rules and testify either in paper or in writing.

Here are the rules, which they will eventually publish on their website:

LB Rule 2-02 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-06.2 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-07 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-09 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-10 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-11.1 for July Hearing
LB Rule 2-12 for July Hearing 

UPDATE: The rules are indeed on the front page of the Loft Board website, in PDF form.

Schedule of Hearings

2pm, Thursday July 12
22 Reade Street
2-09 Subletting – covers what rent tenants should pay if they were under a prime tenant, as well as who is responsible for code compliance in this situation
2-11.1 Fine Schedule

 

2pm, Thursday July 19
Department of Buildings, 280 Broadway
2-02 Harassment
2-07 Sale of Improvements
2-10 Sale of Rights (and Abandonment – the two ways a unit gets out of rent stabilization)

 

2pm, Friday July 27
Department of Buildings, 280 Broadway
2-06.2 Interim Rent Guidelines (we haven’t won this yet!)
2-12 Rent Adjustments

3rd General Meeting May 9

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New York City Loft Tenants is pleased to invite you to its 3rd General Meeting:
7:30pm Wednesday May 9 at Crown Vic, 60 S 2nd St., Williamsburg.

All who are interested in NYC’s Loft Law are welcome, loft tenants and advocates and members of the other good organizations working on this.

Topics will include:
- Loft Law news
- Albany report & strategy
- the upcoming release of Loft Board rules
- Outreach efforts across NYC
- how about we start a Housing Clinic? do a Survey?

Hope to see everyone there!

338 Berry’s deal

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Someone asked me to explain the mess here at 338 Berry St, especially in light of the story in The Post and other quick presentations of a really complex legal mess.

So, here it goes.

We (10 units) have all been here at 338 Berry St. since at least 1998.  We did sign an agreement in 2004, after a long court fight.  It was an OK deal (allowing us to stay 7 years with reasonable rent increases), especially given that the other choice was guaranteed eviction due to a brand-new court decision. That’s the Wolinsky decision, which in my flawed understanding excluded buildings in M-1 zones from any protection under the old Loft Law.  Ironic detail: the lawyer on the landlord’s side of the Wolinsky decision was also our landlord’s lawyer, and she was pleased as punch.

We never considered challenging the agreement (called a Stipulation) until the 2010 Loft Law passed.  At that point, our attorney told us that the Loft Law overrides such agreements, that overriding existing agreements between tenants and landlords is part of its purpose.  In the exercising of the new law, which is a blunt instrument, some landlords will benefit, some tenants will benefit.  Politicians and loft tenant activists supported this notion as the legal battle progressed.

In the end, it did not work out for us.  The Stipulation was either more tightly-written than ones that were overturned in the 80s and 90s, or the tendencies of the courts in 2012 are different from the way they used to be.  Or we were stupid.

But we were never greedy.  We had an opportunity to settle for some cash, but we just wanted to stay.  Wouldn’t you fight for your home (and work space!), even if someone might say you were cheating?

And we were never gambling, and we do not feel entitled.  Yes, we were trying to get out of an agreement we signed, but we honestly thought the law was on our side, that you cannot promise away in 2004 your access to a law that didn’t exist until 2010.  We still believe it, but there is no more opportunity to pursue this argument in the courts — our motion to stay judgment pending appeal was denied.  The appeal is based on a good argument, and could theoretically move forward, but we will be out anyway.

About the press.  The Post is not a good place for a complex story, and I’m on the fence about whether I should have put myself in that position.  My long, rambling narrative about how artists slowly move into abandoned neighborhoods and the bars and developers follow them and kick them out was severely smashed into:  ”The people like us who
made the neighborhood cool are the ones getting the boot.”  - or something like that.  Not so good.  But the Post led to Channel 7, which led to Crain’s New York, which is a good piece of reporting.

So that’s the story.  Hopefully we at 338 can get a little more time here to figure things out, but my 17 years in this building are over.

David

Loft Law press: Crain’s NY and a video essay

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Hey, this is a really good article about the Loft Law and how tenants are organizing to try to make it better.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120429/REAL_ESTATE/304299989

If it asks you to register to see the article, you get to it this way: link to article through Google

Of course, there is the other side of the story (we at 338 Berry St losing the battle) which is also covered in the article. My personal thanks to Gordon, Eve and Loft Board member Chuck DeLaney for working with the reporter to present a fuller picture than The Post would ever do!

And, just sent to me, a video piece on the Loft Law Panel event last Tues, Apr 24th:

http://vimeo.com/41061048

Success (and Failure)

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Last night’s State of the Loft Law Panel was a big success – there at least 250 Loft Tenants in attendance (289 people signed in). It was exciting to see so many new faces and new buildings represented. Of course many of us had difficult questions for the Panel – it’s a complicated law and not every bit of it is fair to tenants.

At the same time we are also mourning the loss of 338 Berry, which should have been protected by the Loft Law but wasn’t, due to a lack of clarity over whether the Law supersedes stipulated agreements. Now our own founding member David Opdyke and his family are going to have to look for a new home, along with 9 other families. We sure will miss him, Andrea, Cathy, and the rest, at NYCLT.

This only shows why we need the Loft Law more than ever: without it, we’d all be in the same situation, sooner or later. The Law has its flaws, but it’s our best hope for staying in the communities we have built.

Event: The State of the Loft Law

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APRIL 24 — SAVE THE DATE — State of the Loft Law — with Assemblyman Vito Lopez, Councilman Steve Levin, ++

WE NEED EVERYONE! yes, everyone,
to come to the
STATE OF THE LOFT LAW
event on April 24 at Our Lady of Pompeii in Bushwick.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez – The sponsor of the “Loft Law Clean Up Bill” is holding this event to gauge the need and support in the community for making the loft law more tenant friendly.

Hundreds of people need to show our elected officials that there is grass roots support to improve the loft law, keep neighborhoods intact, + keep housing safe and affordable. If you are a loft tenant it is imperative that you show up on April 24th. Bring your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers.

If you are not a loft tenant, but you care about your community, the fabric of your neighborhood, the problem of sky-rocketing rents, the displacement of your neighbors, then please show up to show your support.

PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE STATE OF THE LOFT LAW 
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 7:00 PM
Our Lady of Pompeii – Community Room
225 Seigel Street  (between Bushwick Ave + White St.)
Bushwick, Brooklyn
——–> Take the L train to the Morgan Ave stop <———–

NYCLT on Facebook

NYCLT google group

Second NYCLT General Meeting

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The second NYCLT General Meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday, March 20th
Crown Victoria, 60 South 2nd St. Williamsburg, Brooklyn: map it

The agenda includes:
1. Albany Trip Report
2. Ratifying By-Laws (rules for how we operate)
3. Planning Outreach / Education
4. Discussion April 10 “State of the Loft Law” forum with pols, other orgs, DOB, Loft Board
5. Planning testimony on new Loft Board rules
6. Next Albany trip: date + strategy

Please come out. Stay informed and get involved. You will probably find a project that you want to help with.

See you there!

Letter to Loft Board Members on the hearing process

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Dear Loft Board Members:

NYCLT is pleased to hear that the hearings on the new rules will cover a reasonable number of well-weighted rules per hearing, with an adequate three minutes for each speaker to testify on each rule.

We understand that Mr. LiMandri did not promise but assured that time would be allowed between hearings for your discussion of testimony and possible resulting changes to rules. We hope that you will ask that this discussion is added to the agenda for a meeting following each hearing.

We also understand that not too far in the past, the Board Members were allowed to ask questions of speakers giving testimony. We think that this would improve your understanding of our concerns and help you make well-considered decisions.

Thank you,
NYCLT

cc: Council Member Erik Dilan, Council Member Stephen Levin,
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz,
State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol,
State Senator Daniel Squadron

Report from Albany

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Many thanks to all who took the trip to Albany. And to all those who put it together:

McDavid, Kathleen, + Lee for scheduling meetings; Eve for managing the trip list, the 450 print outs and putting the days agenda together; Simon + Eve for assembling and editing the letters for the PR kits and renting the vans; Gordon + Eve for writing the NYCLT introduction and Loft Law “fix-it” list; Rachel for helping arrange some last-minute meetings; Eliza for the gorgeous poster design; Eve + Eliza for designing and ordering buttons and magnets with Jett’s great NYCLT logo; Eliza, Andrea + Simon for buying all the materials; Andrea, Eliza, Eve and Simon for poster production and late-night PR kit assembly — creating really sharp and well-designed presentations so the pols won’t forget about us. And McDavid, Kirsten, Simon and Eliza for baking those awesome cookies that will remind jaded legislators of who we are. + thanks to all the folks who sent letters!

We made an impression.

There were official meetings with about 17 legislators, divided in two categories. One set is firmly on our team (Dems from the Assembly + the Senate): we got strategic advice and promises of support from them. The other set is more important (Republicans): they are indifferent or opposed to the Loft Law. I am sure they are used to hearing arguments from other legislators, but sitting down with actual Loft Tenants and hearing actual real-life stories made a difference: we got some indications of qualified support, curiosity, or at least neutrality. We left the remaining press kits with other Republicans on the Senate Committee on Housing — those are the folks we really need to convince!

A good trip. We were polite, respectful, stayed on message, kept all of our appointments, and even wrangled a few extra meetings.

Vito Lopez will sponsor our “Clean Up” bill and try to get it out of committee (this is the first step to getting a bill passed). In order to do that Vito’s strategy is to hold an event with Loft Tenants, the Senate Republican sponsor of our bill and the Mayor’s office. We will need to get 400 people at this meeting, so stay tuned for an announcement of the time and place!

NYCLT is now on the radar in Albany, but we will need to do this many times (next trip in April!) to keep the Loft Law from sinking into the swamp of bills, proposals and lobbying.

We were told that the Real Estate lobby groups are all over Albany, focusing their energy on the Senate to block pro-tenants bills. We are the only ones telling the other side of the story.

Let’s keep it up!

Loft Board Meeting Report: March 1

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TOPIC OF THE DAY: schedule and procedures for upcoming public hearings on Loft Board rules.

In response to our letters (and the efforts of NAG, EWBLTA, DNA, Erik Dilan, Steve Levin, and Vito Lopez), the LB insisted that they would not bunch together too many hearings on one day. They will hear testimony for each rule separately and allow 3 minutes of testimony per speaker on each rule. They will release the rules 60 days before hearings.

They will have at least three hearings (i.e. of four rules each). Better 4 hearings of 3 rules, but at least we are getting somewhere. They seem to understand that they should not stack two really weighty rules in the same hearing.

However, they did not make any mention of allowing the Board to ask questions of people giving testimony — which used to be standard procedure. And Chairman LiMandri said they would “try” to have meeting time between hearings for the LB to discuss our concerns and suggest changes, but did not promise this. Those of you who were witness to the rule-making on Incompatible Use will remember that real dialog and deliberation are crucial, so we need to continue to press the Loft Board to open up the process.

There was a lengthy discussion of a corner case in the draft harassment rule 2-02 where if one unit in a building has an outstanding harassment case, the landlord can’t buy the rights of any unit until the harassment case is completed. I don’t know if this is a serious problem or a rare one, but it’s a typical example of the trade-offs that occur between law & order and tenant rights, even where the LB is ostensibly on our side. It is frustrating not to have drafts of these rules so we can be sure what they are talking about!

They also discussed the fine schedule in the new rule 1-11.1, and in particular there was a lot of debate about the scale of harassment fines. There was a lot of Board support for increasing those fines (especially from Shelton!), so your letters can make a big difference. The violations of most concern to tenants are usually harassment and interruption of service. (If you know of other important ones, please let us know.)

A more detailed report can be found on our google group: groups.google.com/group/NYCLT/loft board meeting report

FINALLY, AS YOU KNOW:
If we do not show up and write letters they simply will not listen to us. Chuck DeLaney does a great job of raising tenant concerns and sticking to his guns, but LiMandri will roll right over him if we don’t back him up. It’s show up or shut up, everyone!