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DM Confidential Offices Under attack
by Press Release
NEW YORK CITY'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY UNDER ATTACK
The live-work building located at 475 Kent Ave in Brooklyn's coveted waterfront neighborhood of Williamsburg was issued a Vacate Order by the NYC Fire Department on Sunday, January 20th at 7:30PM, the day before Martin Luther King day.
475 Kent is a microcosm of New York City's cultural and economic activity with creative practitioners generating an estimated $15 million in annual revenue. The vibrant community of 200 working artists - photographers, architects, writers, musicians, sculptors, filmmakers, designers, painters, printmakers, etc. is under attack. Under the direction of the Department of Buildings Brooklyn Deputy Borough Commisioner Bryan Winter it seems clear that the D.O B. is intent on making sure people will never be able to return to their spaces until all repairs are made and the building has a residential C of O, a prospect that could take years and millions of dollars. This renders 200 inhabitants most of whom are self-employed, small businesses entrepreneurs, both homeless and out of work. That people's livelihoods and homes are being put in complete jeopardy due to trumped up charges from the D.O.B begs the phrase “follow the money”.
The events on Sunday night were precipitated when the FDNY inspected the basement of 475 Kent Ave. and “discovered” two 18' diameter metal canisters containing grain used for making Matzo. The Matzo bakery has been in the building for more than ten years. The DOB and Fire Department have inspected 475 Kent Avenue regularly for the past ten years and must have been fully aware of the existence of a Matzo bakery and the grain. The existence of the grain resulted in a so-called “hazardous emergency” situation that gave FDNY and DOB license to vacate the building. When some residents and the landlord offered to alleviate the problem and remove the grain from the building on Sunday night the FDNY replied “you are not qualified to move the grain”. They then issued the vacate order.
What ensued was unmitigated chaos under the direction of our friends at the OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANGEMENT starring the New York City Fire Department, Department of Buildings, NYPD, Health Department, Department of Agriculture and the Red Cross. Their only area of competence was at holding closed-door, inter-agency meetings, in which no tenant representative was allowed, every two hours in their brand new location trailer.
Upon the issue of the vacate order 200 people scrambled to rid 110 spaces of their most crucial belongings. The following day people were given 6 hours access to remove their belongings, tools and equipment, a scenario that for most people who had been in residence for 5 - 10 years with substantial equipment and installations was completely untenable. From there the scene snow-balled. On Tuesday January 22, tenants arrived with moving trucks at 10am having been told they would have another 6 hours access to the building. They found all entrances blocked by NYPD and FDNY and no one was allowed upstairs.
Finally, at 1pm the leaders of each agency stood on the staircase and delivered their plan to the crowd:
- residents would be allowed into the building six people at a time for one hour, followed by another group of six people each being granted one hour.
Do the math.
No, we'll do it for you. 200/6= 33.3 hours it would take to allow each person one hour access to collect their stuff. Then they shut down the elevators, insuring that the task was impossible.
People in a panic, that this would be their last chance to save their belongings, began to carry equipment and valuables down ten flights of stairs, creating a hazard that was much more real than the sham created by the DOB.
As of Wednesday, January 23, the grain has been removed from the basement of 475 Kent Avenue, alleviating the immediate “hazardous” condition. Now the tenants of 475 have been told by the DOB that on Sunday, January 27, the building will be padlocked prohibiting all further access for the foreseeable future. Although requested repeatedly the DOB has never provided a complete list of the violations on the building. We know one of these violations is an inoperable sprinkler system, a problem that can be mitigated with the presence of fire-guards while the system is repaired, allowing continued occupancy of the building
The tenants of 475 Kent Avenue call for investigations of the Department of Buildings as we feel convinced that the forces driving this vacate are much greater than “concerns” for our heath and safety.
Since the 1960's New York City's tacit urban renewal policy has been reliant on artist's moving into derelict buildings in “less desirable” neighborhoods. The city does nothing to bolster or support economic activity in these down and out areas, nor do they do anything to create affordable, legal, usable space for live/work entrepreneurs. 475 Kent is a prime example of this kind of turn-a-blind-eye urban renewal. A decade ago South Williamsburg was a dangerous neighborhood. Once artists take the initiative to live on the edge and restore and renew unused real estate in what were marginal areas the City becomes predatory. The transformation of Williamsburg by the artist community into one of New York City's most desirable neighborhoods encourages the city to move artists out as they calculate the tax revenue of luxury condo developers moving in. No one in the any city agency cared about our health and safety ten years ago. Now that our building has become hot property the City is ready to muster all the powers of its many agencies to assist in the muscling of the property from the owners and the tenants. The tenants of 475 Kent Avenue call for investigations of the Department of Buildings as we feel convinced that the forces driving this vacate are much greater than “concerns” for our heath and safety.
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