FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 31, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
City to investigate Sunnyside condo with Nazi imagery
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Last week, tenants at a Sunnyside condo
spoke out against the building’s property
manager who they say has been harassing
them for years and today the city
announced it would launch an investigation.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer held
a press conference outside of 47-55 39th
Place, a building decked out in posters
that pay tribute to dictators such as Hitler
and Mussolini, as well as the National
Rifl e Association and President Donald
Trump.
Th e NYC Commission on Human
Rights announced on Aug. 29 that it would
be investigating tenants’ claims about
property manager Neal Milano, who slaps
Trump stickers on the doors of tenants he
is feuding with. He has also installed several
cameras around the condo to “watch
and monitor the people who live in this
building,” Van Bramer said.
Th e hallway also includes quotes from
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President
George Washington and William B.
Travis. Two 10-foot-tall statues of Uncle
Sam fl ank the entryway doors.
Milano’s attorney, Jacob Laufer, has
spoken to the media on behalf of Milano
and called the murals “patriotic” and “historical.”
According to Van Bramer, tenants were
afraid to appear on camera or speak to
reporters but told him they have been
threatened with outrageous fi nes, eviction
and even physical violence for fi ling
harassment reports with police or
for minor off enses, including recycling
errors.
Th e property manager’s “racist, anti-Semitic
and anti-immigrant actions” take
place on “almost a daily basis,” he said at
the press conference on Aug. 23.
“Th e issues at the building aff ects people
like me who are immigrants and
renters the most,” said a tenant who
declined to provide a name. “Th ey are the
ones who are intimidated and harassed
the most and more afraid to say anything.
His actions create a hostile environment.”
“Discrimination and harassment will
not be tolerated in New York City and
the NYC Commission on Human Rights
is cracking down on anyone who thinks
they are above the law,” said Deputy
Commissioner of the Law Enforcement
Bureau at the NYC Commission on
Human Rights Hollis V. Pfi tsch.
Th e Commission can fi ne violators with
civil penalties of up to $250,000 for willful
and malicious violations of the law and
can award damages to victims, including
emotional distress damages and other
benefi ts.
Jeff Orlick, a Queens resident who hosts
the Jackson Heights momo crawl every
year, went into the building on Aug.
28 and took down some of the posters
depicting Hitler, DNAinfo fi rst reported.
Orlick told the publication that he
accepts any repercussions he may face
but that “someone had to do something,
and it’s a real shame that it took this long
for anybody to do anything.”
The city will investigate a Sunnyside property manager that tenants say is harassing them.