A crumbling facade could cause the identity of the community within the Morningside Gardens Co-op to disintegrate as well, as the community faces the decision to sell their units at market price or watch their building fall apart.
In the basement of the apartment complex, approximately 40 residents came together Thursday night to discuss the possibility of going to market rate, a move that would officially bring an end to the building’s tradition of affordable housing.
Longtime resident Barbara Williams-Henry said that she would be voting for the rate increase.
“I know what they need this money for,” Williams-Henry said “All these things are collapsing day by day. And I’ve been here 35 years, and I’ve been through assessments and all kinds of things, and I don’t want to see that come back again. And we need the money to get these things done.”
In the first in a series of town hall meetings regarding setting co-op prices to the open market, the Morningside Gardens Bylaws Committee presented the advantages of pricing apartment units at market rate to an audience divided at the prospect of price hikes. While some threw in their support citing desperately needed building renovations, others expressed concern that going market rate would eliminate the diversity that has long defined the co-op.
President of the Morningside Heights Housing Corporation and bylaw committee member Tova Francus said that the apartment buildings were in need of sidewalk repairs, facade renovations, and heating, drainage, and ventilation repairs, all of which could cost more than more than $30 million. The co-op receives a 15 percent flip tax for every apartment sold, and an increase in the going rates would lead to more money from the flip tax, which would then be used for building improvements.
Morningside Gardens faced similar debate last March when tenants voted in favor of an 80 percent price hike and an expansion of the flip tax,
But others were concerned that the apartments would no longer draw in the kind of ethnic and economic diversity that had been an intrinsic part of the co-op’s character.
“This is one of those rare enclaves of the kind of society you need to live in. It’s not only highly integrated racially and ethnically, but also by age and income,” new resident Sheila Geist said. “The joy of moving into a fully integrated community, with their heads screwed on right and who care about their neighbors, who are not just thinking of the bottom line ... to have that taken away just as I arrive is very painful to me.”
Resident Joan Levine was skeptical that going to market rate would provide the money for all the necessary repairs.
“At some point, unless everybody’s always moving out, the flip tax is going to dry out,” Levine said. “That’s planning on the basis of everybody leaving.”
Bylaw committee chair Yvonne Martin-Cozzula stressed that nothing had been finalized yet, and that preserving the diversity of the complex as well as the economic interests of its residents was of the utmost importance to the committee. The bylaw committee expects to present a proposal to the MHHC to be voted on by March.
Alix Pianin can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.
TAGS: Morningside Gardens
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But others were concerned that the apartments would no longer draw in the kind of ethnic and economic diversity that had been an intrinsic part of the co-op’s character.
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Translation: keep whitey out. It's also hysterical that they care more about "diversity" than having a building that wont fall apart over their heads. Truly brainwashed. And stupid.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) December 7th, 2007 @ 9:39am
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In all my years at Columbia and beyond, you, anonymous troll, are the only person I've ever witnessed using the phrase "keep whitey out." Again. And again. And again.
Sometimes I wonder which team you're playing for.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) December 7th, 2007 @ 11:58am
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Hey, I started saying "Keep Whitey out" two weeks ago - let's give some credit here.
Although, to be fair, I was only making explicit what most of the anti-expansion folks were thinking.
Posted by: anonymous238 December 7th, 2007 @ 10:23pm
reply
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) December 7th, 2007 @ 9:39am
reply
In all my years at Columbia and beyond, you, anonymous troll, are the only person I've ever witnessed using the phrase "keep whitey out." Again. And again. And again.
Sometimes I wonder which team you're playing for.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) December 7th, 2007 @ 11:58am
reply
Hey, I started saying "Keep Whitey out" two weeks ago - let's give some credit here.
Although, to be fair, I was only making explicit what most of the anti-expansion folks were thinking.
Posted by: anonymous238 December 7th, 2007 @ 10:23pm
reply
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