Battery Park City residents rally to stay in their homes
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Battery Park City (BPC) residents
gathered on the Battery Park City
Esplanade while others attended
by Zoom—all fi ghting for security— the
security to stay in their homes.
The banner on the wall reads “Stop Upward
Rents for every ground surge in Battery
Park City” where fi fty BPC residents and
political activists rallied last Friday to address
the dire situation to save Battery Park homes.
Despite numerous requests for the Battery
Park City Authority—the New York State
public benefi t corporation that overseas BPC’s
land lease—to begin good faith negotiations
with homeowners, so far there have been no
concrete steps in this direction.
Renters, owners, or developers of BPC do
not own the land where the buildings sit. The
government agency the Battery Park City
Authority (BPCA) leases the space— which
expires 2069— for yearly “ground rent” remittances.
Additionally, “payments in lieu of
taxes” (PILOT) are assessed, determined by
municipal tax assessors and passed directly
to the City by the BPCA.
At the rally Justine Cuccia, founder
of Democracy 4 Battery Park City (democracy4BPC.
org), emphasized how the
people can’t afford increases and they can’t
afford to leave either. “We need certainty
now—we can’t wait! The Battery Park City
Authority AND the Comptroller and Mayor
must come to the table,” she said.
An engaged Vittoria Fariello, Assembly District 65 Part C. Leader, listens as
Justine Cuccia speaks.
The Authority, on its own, cannot commit
to changes in ground rent or PILOT.
City Hall, the recipient of these collections
must also consent.
In the long-term, ownership of the land
ultimately will revert to the state.
In the short-term, several of these
buildings have ground leases that contain
“reset” clauses, slated for the near future,
whereby their payments will jump causing
common charges to rise by thousands of
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
dollars per month for each apartment in
such buildings.
Thousands of Battery Park City
homeowners will be unable to pay these
increased common charges, and as well,
will be unable to sell apartments for which
the resale value will have dropped.
“Time is running out.Without
swift,decisive action, a wave of bankruptcies
and foreclosures is coming to this
neighborhood,” says Chris Marte, City
Council candidate who was co-host of the
rally. “ We demand that the BPCA begin
earnest negotiations with homeowners in
BPC.”
“BPC units should stay affordable!” said
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, reminding
everyone that the history of BPC was
supposed to be affordable housing.
Via Zoom, John Dellaportas co-founder
of the Battery Alliance (www.savebpc.org),
which offers a 5-point plan to fi ght for what
will keep homeowners in their homes, also
spoke.
With an activist stance, Maria Smith,
Battery Point resident addressed the assembled,
“Rent strike works.” Adding,
“It’s a long fi ght. We stayed through and
past 9-11, and rebuilt. We stayed through
Hurricane Sandy, through COVID. With
no relief, we should stop paying (rent)!”
In response, BPCA spokesperson Nick
Sbordone said the following: “BPCA is
currently engaged in negotiations with
several condominium buildings on renewal
of their ground leases. Ground rent reset
provisions that threaten the economic
stability of Battery Park City’s residential
buildings, agreed to many years ago, are of
serious concern to us and Battery Park City
homeowners alike. Negotiations with those
buildings whose renewal dates are most
imminent are ongoing, and it is our hope
that their outcome will advance our shared
priorities of greater predictability and economic
security in Battery Park City.”
Financial District rally seeks to help women incarcerated on Rikers
BY DEAN MOSES
Since the COVID-19 pandemic
changed the way
New Yorkers live their
lives, many communities have
been wondering how this deadly
virus has likewise left those most
vulnerable — including incarcerated
women in the jails of Rikers
Island.
According to the Women’s
Community Justice Association
(WCJA), women serving time on
Rikers have been living under
horrendous conditions that have
been severely exacerbated due to
the novel coronavirus.
On Monday afternoon, activists
took to the steps of the New
York Stock Exchange building
where they rallied in support of
the 271 women — many of whom
are Black and Brown — spending
the global pandemic behind
bars for crimes that have been
decriminalized, such marijuana
possession. It’s part of the #What-
AboutHer social movement calling
attention to the treatment of
incarcerated women.
The executive director of the
WCJA, Sharon White-Harrigan,
says the $445,000 spent annually
to house incarcerated
women is a waste of resources
that only goes to fund unhealthy
conditions, fostering the spread
of COVID-19.
“The women are detained, so
they get COVID-19 from people
going in like the offi cers. These
are people who are contained.
No one is saying how much PPE
is being given out, no one is saying
how these women’s health
conditions are being met, but
we do know the numbers keep
going up,” White-Harrigan told
amNewYork Metro.
White-Harrigan also believes
the way in which Black and
Demonstrators showcase photographs of those who have
been effected by the prison system.
Brown individuals are incarcerated
for minor crimes is another
form slavery.
“They found a new name for
slavery and it’s mass incarceration,”
she said at the rally.
“It is the same thing. You are
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
ripped away from your family —
I mean come on. You legalized
marijuana, this is the same thing
people were arrested for, penalized
for, and locked-up for many
years and now people can walk
freely smoking it. People are still
locked-up for it — Black people!”
White-Harrigan told amNewYork
Metro.
The WCJA is calling upon all
of those running for offi ce this
year and current elected offi cials
to join in the effort to close the
Rose M. Singer Center before the
2027 deadline. They state that the
replacement facility should house
no more than 100 people, and be
a source of rehabilitation, healing,
and education.
According to WCJA, the
replacement facility will be in
Queens for women and gender
expansive individuals; however,
this in turns means that this population
of incarcerated individuals
are going to be the last to be
relocated from Rikers Island.
WCJA and protesters are
demanding that these women be
immediately removed from Rikers
Island and integrated within the
community.
Schneps Media April 29, 2021 3
/www.savebpc.org
/(www.savebpc.org)
