Author
nyc imc
brooklyn live/work
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NEW LIFE FOR LIVE/WORK
TENANTS BEGIN BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN LOFT
LAW
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BREITBART
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color:white'>Mery
Lynn McCorkle has been living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for four-and-a-half years.
She has spent close to $10,000 to convert a dormant commercial lot into a
livable space for her and her business partner. But now her landlord wants
her out. “We’ve had no electricity or hot water for over five
months. And we have no legal recourse.”
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color:white'>Her landlord cut electrical service, claiming the commercial
lease gives him the right to do so. Because she is living at the location,
the courts have not afforded her the same protection as businesses in her
building. And Con Edison will not deal with her directly without the
landlord’s cooperation.
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color:white'>McCorkle is one of an estimated 10,000 Brooklyn residents who
have converted commercial property into mixed live-work spaces —
illegally, but usually with their landlord’s knowledge. And like many
others, she now finds herself caught in the cracks in New York City’s
housing code.
color:white'>Landlords who once eagerly rented empty warehouses and factory
spaces to residential tenants now want to clear the buildings to cash in on
soaring rents in newly-chic neighborhoods and their tenants’ capital
improvements. Simultaneously, the city’s Buildings Department is waking
up to the widespread reality of illegal and sometimes unsafe loft dwellings.
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color:white'>McCorkle was one of over 400 people in Williamsburg at a February
15 public hearing addressing the need for legislation to protect Brooklyn
tenants who live in commercial buildings. Lawyers, small-business owners,
local politicians — including City Council members Stephen DiBrienza
and Kenneth K. Fisher — and, most of all, tenants showed up at the
Swinging Sixties Senior Center to lobby members of the New York State
Assembly.
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color:white'>The Brooklyn Live/Work Coalition (BLWC), a network of over 2000
people representing 69 buildings, was formed in December when the fire
department suddenly cleared tenants from 247 Water Street along the
waterfront area known as “Dumbo” (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge
Overpass). The Daily News then published a list of 98 buildings supposedly
slated for evictions, which was dubbed the “List of Doom.”
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Susan Woods had lived at 247 Water Street for nearly 6
years. After her eviction, she joined BLWC to help protect others. “If
an upper middle class white woman can be thrown out of my house in the middle
of the night, then this system
won’t protect anyone,” she said after the forum.
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The first test of the group’s strength came on
January 2 when the Buildings Department attempted to evict residents of a
third building at 255 Water Street. The city claimed the premises were unsafe
after the landlord disconnected the building’s sprinkler system.
Supporters and tenants quickly gathered at the location to block the ouster
and called in City Councilman Fisher, who negotiated a reprieve. Both Water
Street buildings are owned by Joshua Guttman.
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color:white'>Ellen Harvey, an artist and activist with the BLWC, and a member
of its legislative committee, is pleased with the group’s
accomplishments to date. “It’s exciting to see it go from the
Building Department kicking people out to someone willing to sponsor
legislation in two months,” she said.
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color:white'>Vito Lopez, State Assemblyman from the 53rd District and chair
of the hearing, is prepared to sponsor two bills. One would extend the 1982 Loft
Law, which covered only certain zones in Manhattan and is set to expire March
31. It specified that any building that had been designated for commercial
use but now had three residential units and no certificate of occupancy was a
“multiple dwelling” and had to be brought up to code by the
building owner. (Unlike standard multiple dwellings, however, the landlord
can continue to collect rent while he or she makes improvements). The second
bill would affect current residents of commercial lofts in Brooklyn, but
would be similarly phrased. Drafts of the legislation will be circulated for
comment as early as March 1.
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color:white'>Once the legislation is introduced, “Then people here need
to come to Albany,” Lopez stated, referring to the importance of
lobbying the Republican-controlled State Senate for bipartisan support.
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color:white'>Joan L. Millman, Assemblywoman from the 52nd District, was
optimistic about the bills’ chances in Albany. “The major
landlords are a very powerful lobby, but there is an economic incentive [to
support the tenants] and the personal testimony is very moving,” she
said.
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color:white'> Assemblymen Lopez
(L) and Lentol
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legislation might come from the mostly Hispanic portion of his constituency
in Bushwick who fear gentrification will displace them from their
neighborhoods.
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color:white'>Harvey was quick to respond on that issue. “It’s
unfair to characterize us as gentrifiers because we are interested in
maintaining existing communities. We have not been displacing manufacturing.
We have used mostly abandoned space to create something... We don’t
want to be the next Soho.”
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Historically, though, an influx of artists and bohemians
was the initial step in the gentrification of Soho, the Lower East Side and Williamsburg.
In Soho, the landlords’ manipulation of the Loft Law was the last step.
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color:white'>Some coalition members say they have a positive influence on
economically depressed neighborhoods. Eve Sussman, a founder of BLWC,
testified: “We are modern-day homesteaders. [But] instead of being
given something for free, we have signed leases and pay rent, and we pay
millions of dollars in rent. The building I currently live and work in ...
was only attractive to artists — who could envision a future, were forming
communities in blighted neighborhoods and, unlike many factory owners, still
maintain ties to the art and cultural life in Manhattan. What has transpired
is a Brooklyn Renaissance, an urban renewal enacted without city or state
aid, incentive programs or tax cuts. There is one incentive that drives us to
keep moving into these forgotten buildings — a place to do our work and
make a home.”
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color:white'>Others who support BLWC’s goals take a different
perspective. “If we are homesteaders, does that make the NYPD the
cavalry?” asked Makis Antzoulatos of the North Brooklyn Gentrifiers
Against Gentrification (GAG).
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color:white'>“It’s not that living in commercial spaces is
bad,” added GAG member Liv Dillon, “but it’s not affordable
homes for low-income families.”
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color:white'>Many people involved with BLWC recognize the complexity of their
situation. Some express hope that the coalition’s work may help to
bridge gaps between communities and allow them to contribute to other
neighborhood struggles. Peter Krebs, a BLWC tenant organizer, thinks the real
value of the group goes beyond specific legislation. “That’s the
hope,” he said, “that being better organized will make us better
neighbors.”
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style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:white'>On the List of
Doom: 265 McKibbin (The author’s residence)
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color:white'>The BLWC is now working on a census of all live-work tenants
through its website:
style='color:white'>www.brooklynlivework.org. The website says,
“Now it’s your turn to stand up, be counted, and let the city and
state know that you’re a benefit to the community.”
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color:white'>“We need to be able to refute the stereotype that
we’re all rich art students,” BLWC member Ellen Harvey said of
the census.
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color:white'>The BLWC is growing quickly. According to lawyer Arthur Rhine,
the organizing process is crucial. Though Rhine has been able to use the
civil courts to protect many of his live-work clients, he told the hearing,
“What lawyers can do is negligible compared to what a unified group of
tenants can do.”
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