Since last week, I have been working on a column for a developing story, about an epic 33 year old court battle between tenants of 320 Sterling Street, Brooklyn, and their former landlords. This legal quagmire also includes the NYC Housing Preservation Department (HPD). This week however, was the deadline for submitting petitions for candidates running for public and party offices/positions, and given that I have been advising a few clients (one of the many hats I wear is that of political consultant), my time for finishing up on that column just flew by. I will get to it real soon, since it is a very painful story about power-abuse.
It is also a story about a courageous and feisty lady named Joyce Stewart (born in Trinidad), and the tenants association that she formed about thirty five ago, to fight off vicious drug dealers, abusive landlords, corrupt lawyers and judges, inept elected officials and over-reaching governmental bodies. It has been a monumental fight that the public needs to know about.
The building of note is located in the 40th city council district. It is also located in the 11th congressional district. Yvette and Una Clarke have been aware of this issue since 1991 (at least). Before their fanatics start attacking me here on this blog (as per usual) let us simply look at the length of time this has been going on without resolution. That alone, indicates that someone somewhere has failed these tenants. I am not going to place blame only on the shoulders of Una and Yvette Clarke, but given that between the two of them, they have held this council seat since 1991, they do have some accounting to do relative to this situation. Now that their handpicked bogus and inept minion (Mathieu Eugene) is the present council member representing this area, can we expect the timely expedition of this matter? You tell me.
One judge has already stipulated that the tenants must have first crack at buying the building if HPD puts it up for sale; that order has been ignored as HPD tries to sell it off to one of their cronies. This is being done despite the fact that the tenants association has almost two million dollars in escrow towards the purchase. The Governor and/or the State Attorney General need to step in and investigate all this; there are civil and human rights violations being ignored here; and it has been going on for too long without resolution.
Last night at a meeting between Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and the occupants of 320 Sterling Street, the congresswoman lost her temper when challenged over her facts and history of this matter. She was also confronted on the present solution being advanced by HPD. She even resorted to speaking her indigenous ‘patois’ in order to express herself, as she got into a face to face confrontation with Ms. Stewart (who resorted to her own indigenous Trinidad patois/lol). It was real bad. It almost got physical. It was embarrassing for the congresswoman. Her people had to later apologize for the behavior. They were forced to apologize to Ms. Stewart and all the other tenants, for the deterioration of this meeting. Meanwhile residents are in limbo. They don’t know what to expect. They have no idea as to where they will be residing in the next few months.
When tempers flare and “choice” words are used, nothing gets done; nothing is accomplished or resolved; everyone loses. This is not good. This issue has been dragging on for far too long.
Stay tuned-in folks; next week I will get to the meat and potatoes of this epic fight.