The Daily News - July 13, 2010

More than 200 angry tenants staged a protest rally and sit-in today outside City Hall — resulting in 13 arrests for disorderly conduct — to send a message to state Senate Democrats: ”Do not come home without passing our bills!”

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The Real Deal - July 13, 2010

Advocates charge Senate Democrats with a disregard for tenants' rights.

About a dozen activists were arrested outside New York City Housing Authority's Downtown offices today, during a protest criticizing the Democratic-controlled State Senate for failing to vote on a 10-bill package of legislation that could potentially strengthen rent-stabilization practices in New York City.

The protest, which was led by umbrella activist group Real Rent Reform Campaign, included approximately 200 activists from various community groups, according to Mario Mazzoni, the lead organizer with tenants' rights group Metropolitan Council on Housing, and one of the people arrested.

He was one of 13 people arrested and charged with disorderly conduct outside NYCHA's office at 250 Broadway at around 1 p.m., according to a spokesperson for the New York Police Department.

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On March 2, 2010, Mayor Bloomberg signed the Tenant Fair Chance Act, under which "landlords are required to tell prospective tenants whether they are using a tenant screening service, and to provide contact information for the tenant screening company so that tenants can clear records that are erroneous."

For more details, see the article on CityLimits.

The West Side has its Lincoln Center. Nice, but a little garish for our taste. The East Village, on the other hand, has East 4th Street, a block-long cultural retreat boasting no fewer than 12 theaters, eight dance and rehearsal studios, and a screening room for avant-garde films.

With defiant declarations of neighborhood empowerment, poetry, dance and some choice words, the Cooper Square Committee celebrated 50 years of community organizing and housing preservation at its golden anniversary gala recently.

Tenants from rent-stabilized buildings and their supporters took to the streets at the end of last month in the most vocal show of force yet against so-called predatory lending in the East Village.

The Villager

Volume 77, Number 12 | August 22 - 28, 2007

The Cooper Square Committee has been awarded a $125,000 New York Main Street grant to help preserve cultural buildings on E. Fourth St. The grant award was announced Aug. 7 by the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation.