[NYtenants-online] NY Tenants Online 2/6/01

[Tenant]

NYtenants Online                                           2/6/01
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In this issue...

1. Notes from Charas
2. Culture Center Eviction Halted (News)
3. A Jury Rules in Favor of a Latino East Village
    Group Battling Eviction (Times)
4. CHARAS’s Last Stand? (Voice)
5. Jury Deliberating East Village Eviction Case (Times)

CHARAS HOTLINE: 212-982-9446
CHARAS WEB:     http://www.freespeech.org/charas/

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CHARAS WINS IN COURT, SINGER FOILED AGAIN!
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 19:37:28 -0500 From: CHARAS/El Bohio <charas@erols.com>
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Status:

O.K. I admit I was terrified that the Singer's of the world were winning. 
But today the jury decided UNANIMOUSLY that Singer doesn't plan to comply 
with the use restriction, so he cannot evict CHARAS.

The jury only answered the first question on community use, so didn't have 
to deliberate any further. When asked afterwards, the jurors said they 
found Singer's testimony wasn't credible, i.e., he was a hugh liar. They 
want to come to CHARAS and were all invited to come sometime next month.

They said they were so moved by the audience, they found it difficult to 
look over at us, and they said the most moving part of the trial was when 
we stood up for Chino as he left the stand . HOOOORRAY! Singer was quite 
ashen and is sure to appeal. But this was a great victory for the LES, and 
could not have been won without everyone's care and support.

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CULTURE CENTER EVICTION HALTED
Daily News, February 6, 2001
By Helen Peterson

An East Village community group threatened with eviction got a reprieve 
yesterday when a Manhattan Supreme Court jury decided it could not legally 
be booted from its headquarters. The verdict means the Charas/El Bohio 
Cultural and Community Center can remain in the abandoned school building 
it has occupied since 1978.

The group's lawyer, Catherine Grad, said hundreds of hours of "labor and 
love" helped make the building usable. The building is on E. Ninth St. near 
Tompkins Square Park. The group was being evicted from the site by the 
building's new owner, Gregg Singer, who bought it at a city auction in 1998.

Deed restrictions require the building to be used for purposes that benefit 
the community, which Singer's lawyer said his client intends to do. Lawyer 
Nativ Winiarsky said the verdict "was based on emotional sentiment rather 
than acute finding of the fact."

"There are still a lot of issues that remain in the air," Winiarsky said. 
He said an appeal is being considered. Singer bought the building for $3 
million and intends to spend another $10 million to $12 million to restore 
it, Winiarsky said.

Charas/El Bohio pays $1,900 a month in rent, while Singer pays $15,000 a 
month in property taxes and other expenses. Grad said Charas/El Bohio would 
try to find ways to make the community center "an economically feasible 
project" for Singer, but that the landlord refuses to meet with the group. 
Grad conceded that the jury verdict may just be "another stage" in its 
battle to remain at the site.

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A JURY RULES IN FAVOR OF A LATINO EAST VILLAGE GROUP BATTLING EVICTION
New York Times, February 6, 2001
By Shaila K. Dewan

A jury in Manhattan Civil Court gave the Charas/El Bohio Cultural and 
Community Center a significant victory yesterday in its fight to stay in 
the East Village building that it has occupied since 1979.

The jury found unanimously that the owner, Gregg Singer, could not evict 
Charas because he did not intend to use the building in accordance with a 
deed restriction requiring that it house groups that serve the community.

Chino Garcia, the director of Charas, was not present when the jury's 
decision was read.

"I had to gather my troops," he said with a grin, standing outside the 
courthouse with Juan Figueroa, president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense 
Fund, and a group of artists and others who use the rehearsal and studio 
space, theater and gallery at Charas.

Supporters celebrated in typical East Village fashion: with loud cheers, 
placards and chants of "the Lower East Side is not for sale."

The legal battle escalated after a partnership that includes Mr. Singer, a 
real estate investor, bought the building at a city property auction in 
1998 and took title in July 1999. That month, he posted an eviction notice 
on the door. Charas, which had tried to prevent the city's sale of the 
building, says Mr. Singer has refused to negotiate a lease with the 
organization. The group says his asking price, $32 a square foot, is too 
expensive for the kind of nonprofit organizations that the East Village 
needs. For his part, Mr. Singer maintains that Charas has not made a 
"serious" proposal. "They're a bunch of comedians, really," he said.

Alan Levine, a lawyer for Charas, said, "If he made peace with Charas, he 
would have this building rented in a heartbeat." But Mr. Singer's lawyers 
showed no signs of backing down.

"Ultimately, we'll gain possession," Mr. Winiarsky said. "We feel that the 
jury decided a very clear-cut case from an emotional standpoint." Catharine 
Grad, a lawyer for El Bohio and four artists who live in the building, said 
that members of the jury had said that they did not find Mr. Singer believable.

Because of an earlier ruling, Mr. Singer had to prove that he intended to 
comply with the community-use restriction. But he has appealed that ruling, 
and an appeals court has not yet decided.

Despite yesterday's decision, the legal fight is not over, and the 
building's badly needed repairs (the top two floors are not usable) will 
not begin until the case is settled. City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, 
whose district includes the building, said yesterday that she had set aside 
$700,000 from her discretionary budget for Charas to use for the building, 
but Mr. Singer said that renovations would cost $10 million.

To further complicate matters, the jury decided only the fate of Charas, 
not El Bohio. El Bohio was formed to hold the original lease with the city, 
and under the terms of that lease, El Bohio is not entitled to a jury 
trial. Technically, Charas is a tenant of El Bohio. The judge, Saralee 
Evans, is to rule on the El Bohio portion of the case.

During the trial, Mr. Singer's lawyers presented numerous letters, fliers 
and leasing packets to show what they called his efforts to attract 
suitable tenants. He said Charas supporters had protested when prospective 
tenants arrived and that antilandlord graffiti had appeared on the 
building. The graffiti appeared after Mr. Singer had two murals on the 
exterior of the building whitewashed.

Susan Howard, the organizer of the Save Charas Committee, said the landlor 
had not made a bona fide effort. "He created the environment of 
opposition," she said, by "destroying the murals, and refusing to negotiate 
with the community center of 21 years."

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CHARAS’S LAST STAND?
A Jury Deliberates the Fate of an East Village Latino Arts Center
Village Voice, January 30, 2001
by Sarah Ferguson

After five years of legal wrangling, a jury will decide the fate of 
CHARAS/El Bohio, a 22-year-old Latino community center on East 9th street, 
whose plight symbolizes the battle over gentrification on the Lower East Side.

Chino Garcia, a former gang leader turned community organizer who helped 
take over the abandoned, five-story elementary school in 1979, is in court 
fighting an eviction proceeding brought by developer Gregg Singer, who 
purchased the building for $3.15 million at a city auction in 1998.

For two years, CHARAS has refused to leave, fending off legal threats as 
community members, politicians, and artists—from actress Susan Sarandon to 
officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development—have rallied 
around the beloved institution. State and federal courts have rejected 
CHARAS's efforts to block or reverse the sale. Now a jury will decide if 
the center has to get out.

"This is definitely a make-or-break case for us," says CHARAS's attorney 
Catharine Grad. "The two central issues are whether Singer intends to lease 
the building for 'community facility use,' as required by the deed, and 
whether several units in the building are covered under the Loft Law, since 
more than three tenants have been living at CHARAS since 1980."

Last October, a civil court ruled that Singer cannot evict CHARAS unless he 
establishes the building will be maintained for community use. Singer is 
currently appealing that decision, but in this trial "the burden of proof 
is on him," says Grad.

While Singer's lawyers declined to comment on the case, Singer dismisses 
CHARAS's claims: "They're just making a whole emotional thing out of this 
when the reality is, I bought the building; [CHARAS's] lease expired, so 
they have to get out."

A former mortgage broker who develops condos and shopping malls, Singer 
says he intends to lease the building to "schools, medical facilities, 
social service and arts groups [that are] legitimate not-for-profits that 
benefit the community." He plans to spend up to $12 million in renovations. 
"People are going to thank me for this. Right now that building looks like 
shit," says Singer, pointing to the fourth and fifth floors, which remain 
empty except for the pigeons. But he's been offering space at $32 per 
square foot—a rate that CHARAS staffers say is far beyond the reach of 
local groups.

In court last week, Singer testified that he had several prospective 
tenants, but said none have been willing to negotiate a lease for fear of 
being targeted by CHARAS supporters, who have staged pickets and launched 
fax-jams against groups rumored to be interested in the property. One 
witness, the head of the Amsterdam Nursing Home, told how he had been 
intimidated by protesters. But under cross-examination, the nursing home 
operator acknowledged that he backed out in large part because he could not 
afford the price.

Singer insists his rents are below market. "There are billions of dollars 
in grants available to not-for-profits," he told the Voice, going so far as 
to suggest that the building could house "after-school programs for kids 
from Avenue D." In real estate listings, he's offered to come down to $20 a 
square foot for a onetime fee of $2 million a floor. Observers say that 
price would more likely appeal to well-endowed not-for-profit foundations, 
a far different kind of community than the freewheeling, low-income groups 
that CHARAS currently serves.

Long a haven for struggling artists—back in the early '80s, CHARAS nurtured 
talents like Spike Lee, Miguel Pinero, and John Leguizamo—the center has 
flourished in its eleventh hour, despite the 1999 murder of its cofounder 
Armando Perez. Last summer, volunteers refurbished the school's 391-seat 
basement auditorium to host the "Fringe Festival," and the first floor has 
been repainted in a burst of colorful Latin murals. As high rents force out 
small theater and community groups, CHARAS remains one of the last places 
in Manhattan where folks can find cheap rehearsal space, or a meeting hall 
for neighborhood organizing and events. Much of CHARAS's long-term 
programming—along with ambitious plans for rehabbing the 
building—languished after Giuliani moved to sell the property in 1996. But 
CHARAS still houses 16 artist studios, a bike-repair school, computer 
classes, and offices for the 9th Street Theater, Circus Amok, and Great 
Small Works.

"If we go, it's really gonna hurt not just us, but the community," says the 
54-year-old Garcia. "Most of the community groups on the Lower East Side 
are losing their spaces. All the storefronts are getting taken over by bars 
and restaurants."

If the jury sides with CHARAS, its future remains uncertain. Singer would 
no doubt appeal—he's currently suing CHARAS for $600,000 in lost revenues. 
But Garcia hopes that by surviving this war of attrition, he can push for 
some kind of settlement. "We've already offered to buy the building back 
from Singer for the $1 million he put down at auction, and to take over his 
mortgage with the city, but he won't take it," says CHARAS organizer Susan 
Howard. "So we're doing what people on the Lower East Side have always 
done: refusing to go quietly."

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JURY DELIBERATING EAST VILLAGE EVICTION CASE
New York Times, February 3, 2001
By Shaila K. Dewan

Another chapter in a five-year legal fight over an East Village community 
organization neared an end yesterday as lawyers for the organization, 
Charas/El Bohio, and the landlord who is trying to evict it gave closing 
arguments in a trial that had lasted more than two weeks.

A State Supreme Court jury in Manhattan began deliberations yesterday 
afternoon to decide if Charas/ El Bohio Cultural and Community Center can 
remain in the abandoned school building on East Ninth Street near Tompkins 
Square Park that it has occupied since 1979.

In an effort to demonstrate the neighborhood's affection for Charas, which 
was founded by reformed gang members, people who use the organization's 
cheap rehearsal rooms, gallery and theater filled the courtroom.

Charas's space, home to colorful murals and a monumental sculpture of a 
Puerto Rican folk singer, has also been used for English and self- defense 
classes, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and services for single mothers, and 
it houses an organization that teaches bicycle repair to young people.

But the jury was told by Nativ Winiarsky, a lawyer for, as he jokingly put 
it, "the bad guy, the owner," that the case boiled down to issues of law, 
not sentiment.

If Charas is evicted, the deed to the 120,000-square-foot building 
specifies that it can be used only by groups that benefit the community — 
medical offices or educational groups, for example — because it was once a 
school. Gregg Singer, the landlord, insists that he intends to comply.

"The shame is, a lot of what they do is what we're going to be doing, but I 
own the building and I have the right to do it," he said yesterday.

Mr. Singer bought the building at a city property auction in July 1998 for 
$3.15 million and inherited Charas's lease, which has expired. Charas pays 
about $1,900 a month for the building, which needs a new roof and other 
substantial improvements, and Mr. Singer said he pays $15,000 a month in 
property taxes alone.

He said that he was willing to rent space to Charas, but that the group 
would have to pay higher rent. "They say they offer affordable space. Well, 
of course they offer affordable space," he said. "I pay for it."

Even in a neighborhood whose population has changed drastically in Charas's 
21 years, the case is one of outsider versus insider, of a developer's 
priorities versus a neighborhood's character. After the unsolved murder in 
April 1999 of Armando Perez, a Charas founder, the center painted a mural 
of Mr. Perez on the outside of the building, with the words, "I will give 
up my life before I give up this building." Mr. Singer had it whitewashed.

"Commercial buildings don't have that," he said yesterday. "You don't have 
eight-foot pictures of people."

Seeking protection for Charas/El Bohio under the city's loft tenant law, 
Catharine Grad, a lawyer, sought to prove in the trial that people had 
lived at Charas between April 1980 and December 1981. She reminded the jury 
that the early residents were "pioneers" whose lifestyles did not include 
credit card bills or other paper proof of where they lived.

Alan Levine, another lawyer for Charas, asked jurors to look at Mr. Singer 
and Chino Garcia, the group's director, and to decide which was more credible.

He argued that Mr. Singer had not made a good-faith effort to find 
community-oriented tenants for the building, and that testimony had shown 
that the city does not enforce such deed restrictions.

Mr. Winiarsky countered that Charas supporters had menaced potential 
tenants by following them during visits to the building and writing 
threatening graffiti. He also complained that Mr. Singer should not take 
the blame for any promises the city might have made to Charas about buying 
the building.

Mr. Singer inherited the legal wrangling, which began in 1996, when the 
city decided to sell the building. Charas protested that the city had sold 
or leased other such buildings to cultural organizations, like the nearby 
Public School 122 and Clemente Soto Velez, but was overlooking Charas in 
part because it was a Hispanic-led group that had had political 
disagreements with the mayor. The city responded that Charas had not made a 
workable proposal, and went ahead with the sale.