Charas Crowd Greets Greedy Gregg
By Susan Howard

Gregg Singer, potential buyer of the Lower East Side’s Charas/El Bohio Community Center, got greeted by a large unwelcoming committee when he came to inspect the building Feb. 11. About 100 protesters were there, making the developer’s fourth visit to Charas his most harried to date.

The Great Small Works Orchestra wore fezzes and white lab coats in an attempt to “cure” Singer, a developer of condos and shopping malls, of his obsession with developing Charas. When Singer, in the company of an employee from the Department of City-Wide Administrative Services, the agency responsible for auctioning Charas, and two potential investors arrived, they were greeted with chants of “Shame on you, Greedy Gregg Singer” and “Hands Off Charas” as they made their way through the crowd.

Police stood across the street and seemed completely disinterested in rescuing Singer from the chanting mob. Greedy Gregg snapped photos of protestors, including a four-year-old, as he entered the building accompanied by the orchestra and attending crowd. Charas cofounder Armando Perez asked the crowd not to follow Singer past the entrance hall. When Singer left the building, a large group of protesters followed him until police finally arrived in a squad car to hail him a cab some six blocks away. Charas, located in a former school building at 605 East Ninth St., provides space to numerous local artists and community groups, but was sold by the Giuliani Administration to Singer for $3.15 million last summer. Organizers have held a dozen demonstrations, collected over 5,000 signatures, have the support of Lower East Side Councilmember Margarita Lopez and the entire Manhattan Council delegation, Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Public Advocate Mark Green, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez, State Senator Martin Connor and Assemblymembers Steven Sanders and Deborah Glick.

The list of Charas’ political and artistic supporters has so far not moved Mayor Giuliani, who now has sole discretion over the center’s fate. Charas’ legal team has appealed the court decision that approved the sale without any public review or need to negotiate with the center.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund is working with them on other legal strategies, but “we have little time left,” say Charas organizers. “In Giuliani’s New York, everything’s for sale, but we do not plan to lose this fight!”

For more information on Charas, you can visit their Web site at www.freespeech.org/charas or call (212) 982-9446. Supporters are encouraged to call Mayor Giuliani at 788-3137 and urge him to rescind the sale.

Susan Howard is a Charas organizer