Charas Community Center, 3 Gardens, Sold At Auction
Protest Organizers Call For Land-Sale Moratorium
by Noel Prince

“Ladies & Gentlemen, though we really shouldn’t be here playing for you today, because, let’s face it, you’re here to sell us out, we want you to know you don’t have to bid on Charas,” Jenny Romaine of the Ninth Street Theater lectured outside One Police Plaza on July 20. “What you do comes back to you, don’t you dare bid on Charas. Don’t bid on Charas, don’t bid on the gardens.” The Bread & Puppet Theater performed, Circus Amok’s brass band played, a stilt walker danced, and the Ninth Street Theater’s dragon roared at nervous cutouts of buildings & gardens. Two laurel trees roamed the crowd waiting to get in.

In the auditorium inside, the Giuliani administration was auctioning off hundreds of parcels of city-owned land, including the Lower East Side’s Charas/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center and several community gardens. Approximately 300 protesters, including Met Council, the NYC Garden Coalition, the Lower East Side Collective, Coalition for a District Alternative, Queens League of United Tenants, the Green Party, the Living Theater, Guerrilla Repertory, Chinese Staff Workers, International Wow Theater Company, Eviction Watch, and Time’s Up lined up in their best urban-developer wear to fill seats and raise hell at the latest and reportedly most successful auction of public land so far this year; 254 parcels sold for a total of $19 million.

Protesters demanded that communities be put before the interests of private developers. They are calling for a moratorium on the sale of public land until there is a plan which addresses its current uses and the best interests of the community.

After two heartfelt warnings by a police chief on the scene that all false bidders would be arrested, 10,000 crickets were released within the auditorium to a theatrical response. Audience members stood on chairs and screamed as the auctioneer tried to reassure the crowd that the bidding would continue. Three audience members were arrested and later released. A group calling themselves Jiminy Cricket took responsibility for the action. The Lower East Side parcels are currently some of the most sought-after in the city, as the lack of any real affordable housing has inflated rents of $1,400 to $4,000 a month and climbing.

When the bidding resumed, a dapper Seth Tobocman was nearly successful in buying the L.E.S. Hispanic Committee Garden—until he was asked to show his cash and quickly thrown out. The garden was then bid on by Caoimhe, who was also thrown out for lacking the approximately $60,000 on-the-spot cash payment required. Neither was arrested. The auctioneer then asked that all bidders come to the front of the stage and show their cash before bidding could continue.

Before Charas/El Bohio was auctioned, a statement was read advising the bidders that the property was in litigation, but that all monies would be returned if the court ruled in Charas’ favor.

Charas, located in a former public school at East Ninth Street and Avenue B, was first squatted in 1980 by six Latino activists, whose group, The Real Great Society, began as housing advocates in the mid-’60s. An invaluable part of the community, it provides performance and rehearsal space for art, dance and theater companies, studio space for visual artists, community workshops like a bike-recycling program for kids and young adults, and training programs, as well as a meeting place for dozens of local groups and organizations.

It was sold for $3.15 million to a buyer decidedly unwilling to reveal his name or any plans for use of the property. The Giuliani administration would not release his name.

The Lower East Side Hispanic Committee Garden was sold for $160,000, the Fourth Street Casita Garden went for $170,000, and the Sam and Sadie Koenig Andencksgarten Garden for $63,000. Community Board 3 Chair Susan Vaughn and a group of her neighbors bought a private garden at 251 E. 7th St. for $150,000 for private use, after having squatted it for years.