LOCAL NEWS
Redemption
in Harlem
Eddie Gibbs takes his seat in
New York State Assembly
BY DAN FASTENBERG
REUTERS
As far as Eddie Gibbs
knows, he is the fi rst
person elected to the
New York State Legislature
who previously served time in
prison, but shortly before his
inauguration on Feb. 10, he
recalled wondering if he could
ever shake the stigma of his
manslaughter conviction more
than 30 years ago.
Gibbs, 53, won handily as
the Democratic candidate in the
Jan. 18 special election in the
state Assembly’s 68th District to
represent East Harlem, where he
was raised by a single mother in
public housing.
Gibbs said his past shapes his
legislative priorities, including
improving the lot of his district’s
disproportionately high number
of public-housing tenants
and making it easier for people
released from prison to reenter
society.
As a teenager in Upper Manhattan
in the 1980s, selling illegal
crack cocaine seemed like
the most obvious way to leap out
of poverty, something he now
calls a “terrible mistake.”
“You didn’t think about repercussions
back then, you
just made money and you were
happy,” he said in an interview
at the community center in the
James Weldon Johnson Houses,
the city-run apartment towers
where his mother still lives. “But
I was also a target for a lot of
people.”
When Gibbs was 17, he said a
New York State Assembly member Eddie Gibbs, a former
convict who served time for manslaughter, is sworn into offi
ce by Mayor Eric Adams on Feb. 10, 2022.
man attacked him in an elevator
there in an attempted robbery in
which he was stabbed in the leg.
The man forced him to open the
safe in his family’s apartment,
which contained little besides
the gun with which Gibbs shot
and killed the man.
Gibbs expresses remorse, but
also emphasizes that he killed in
DAN FASTENBERG
self-defense and turned himself
in to the local police station. He
spent about a year and a half in
the city’s notoriously violent Rikers
Island jail complex before
pleading guilty to manslaughter
following what he said was bad
legal advice by a public defender.
He was moved between several
prisons outside the city over
about three years before being
released on parole.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the
majority leader of the U.S. Senate,
was among the prominent
New York politicians to speak at
Thursday’s inauguration.
“But did Eddie get angry?”
Schumer said. “No. He has such
a good heart, he said: ‘I am going
to do better for everyone
else.'”
The New York Legislature
does not have records to confi
rm that Gibbs is the fi rst
elected representative there to
have been previously incarcerated,
a spokeswoman said, but
his new Democratic colleagues
welcomed him.
“We are proud of the diversity
that exists in our conference,”
Speaker Carl Heastie said in a
statement, “and we are certain
that his unique perspective combined
with his longtime commitment
to his community will be
an asset to the People’s House.”
Soon after his release, Gibbs
took comedy classes and performed
stand-up under the
name Good Buddy, hoping to
offset the notion that people
should be afraid of someone
convicted of a violent felony. He
ended up working as a driver for
about a decade for the celebrity
criminal defense attorney Murray
Richman, who encouraged
him to enter politics.
Two Bridges residents call for independent health monitor
BY DEAN MOSES
Two Bridges residents
pleaded on Feb. 9 for an
independent monitor to
oversee the planned construction
of residential towers in
their neighborhood which they
believe could not only damage
their homes, but also cause
health issues.
Lisa Woody has spent her
entire 55 years living in the
Two Bridges area, in fact she
was even born there. She says
the Lower Manhattan community
has been her home
sweet home when nobody
wanted it, but now she is worried
a big developer could not
only take it away, but they
could also cause her serious
health problems.
Woody said that she already
lives on literal unsteady
ground. Believing her apartment
to be sinking, she showcased
a dramatic slant in her
kitchen and even went as far
Lisa Wood says her entire kitchen is on a slant
as to exclaim that she must
prop up her cooker in order to
prevent pans from falling. She
is afraid construction could
cause further damage.
“Sometimes when I walk
around, I feel dizzy. We have
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
a problem with mice. We have
a problem with roaches. We
have a problem with maintenance
not being able to properly
fi x things that so badly
needs to be fi xed,” Woody
said. “You can’t continue to
put new stuff on top of old
stuff and think it’s going to be
okay. We are fi ghting here. My
mother fought for this place. I
fought for my place. And now
my daughter is fi ghting for her
place.”
Woody joined a rally led
by Councilman Christopher
Marte outside her apartment
building at 265 Cherry Street
on Feb. 9 to demand an independent
monitor be employed
to supervise construction on
top of soil locals believe to
contain toxins.
In 2016, L+M Development
Partners unveiled a joint venture
with CIM Group to create
two rental towers with commercial
space. The controversial
project was taken to court
to determine if City Council
would have to provide their
approval before the construction
could take place; however,
it was ruled that this was not
the case, and the project could
proceed.
According to the Real Deal,
in November 2021 the site,
265 South Street is the process
of being sold to the Chertit
Group for $100 million.
“When we spoke to the Offi
ce of Environmental Remediation
(OER), and when OER
came to our community board,
they said that while they do
the remediation, knowing that
there’s petroleum and heavy
metals underneath there,
they’re going to allow the developer
to do construction.
That is unacceptable,” Marte
said, surrounded by residents.
A spokesperson for Two
Bridges Associates released
this statement: “We are committed
to providing an independent
monitor to help
ensure a safe remediation process.
In fact, we are required
to do so by the Department
of City Planning and it is memorialized
in the Restrictive
Declaration that is recorded
against the land.”
8 February 17, 2022 Schneps Media