Charas, Other Public Lands Auctioned by NYC Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: gardens@cybergal.com Thu Jul 23 21:57:26 1998 Dear Garden Defenders: With the City land auction behind us, the volume of mail you receive from me will be returning to a more normal level; but first, I wanted to fill you in a bit more on what happened. We do not yet know who bought the building that houses CHARAS/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center; whoever it was has very deep pockets, for they paid $3.15 million for the space. Needless to say, as soon as we do find out who the culprit is, I'll be sending you their phone and fax numbers so that you all can do what you do so well. The directors and supporters of CHARAS have vowed not to give up: They are pursuing a lawsuit to block the sale, and some in the community are already talking openly about a grassroots occupation of the building. At least three of the Lower East Side parcels were purchased by garden-friendly bidders -- the auctioned portion of the Sam & Sadie Koenig Andencksgarten on East 7th Street; the lot at 251 E. 7th St; and the "Villa Vitin" garden on East 5th near Avenue D. The purchasers all intend to keep this land as open space, though it is not yet clear whether it will be PUBLIC open space. Below you'll find much more info, for I've appended various news stories about the auction (NYT, DAILY NEWS, NEWSDAY, EL DIARIO, and THE VILLAGER). The Giuliani Administration did succeed in selling off CHARAS and some 250 other pieces of public land -- but only with enormous difficulty, and at a high public relations cost. ALL the coverage of the auction and accompanying protests was sympathetic to our side. The TV coverage was especially good, with NY1 and Channel 11 as stand-outs, casting the issue as community use versus luxury development and presenting our call for a moratorium on the sale of public land pending the development of a democratic plan for open space, low-income housing, and cultural facilities. Most encouraging of all, this movement is clearly growing in both size and strength. Five months ago, the City land auctions weren't even an issue; public awareness has increased enormously in a short time, and more and more people are coming forward to fight not just for community gardens but for democratic control over public land. (The Email Army, for instance, has now grown to nearly 250 hard-fighting members.) Remember, too, that 18 Lower East Side gardens have now been saved as public community space. This is as many gardens in one neighborhood as have been saved in rest of the entire city -- a testament to the enduring political fact that action gets results. We're going to have to fight another auction in three months' time, and we're going to have to keep pushing if we want any more gardens saved. But for the moment, take heart in what this movement has accomplished so far -- and go spend some time in the gardens! *** Amy Waldman, "Cricket Invaders Turn an Auction into 'Madness,'" THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 21, 1998 The Giuliani Administration has seen many protests, but perhaps never one so large in number but so small in girth. Protesters released 10,000 crickets at Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan yesterday to protest the city's auction of several community garden lots and a building that houses a Hispanic cultural center on the Lower East Side. The result, unsurprisingly, was bedlam. "People were screaming and standing on chairs," said Elsa Rensaa, an artist, who was at the auction in the auditorium of One Police Plaza. "It was madness." The crickets, who, apparently traumatized, did not chirp, were the work of a group of Lower East Side advocates calling themselves -- what else? -- Jiminy Cricket. "We wanted something more symbolic than a stink bomb," said Wendy Madison, the group's spokeswoman. By day's end, two Jiminy Cricket members had been arrested and charged with obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Three others, unrelated to the group, were also arrested. Two officers sustained minor injuries. Ms. Madison said the group bought the crickets via the Internet -- "You can find anything on the Web," she said -- and smuggled them into the auction in envelopes in briefcases. The police had no comment on the protest last night. Asked about the crickets' whereabouts, Detective Robert Samuel, a police spokesman, said, "They are no longer with us." Some were apparently killed, but he acknowledged that "we might find one or two that got away." Among the properties sold, despite the protest, was the building housing the Charas/El Bohio Cultural and Community Center, at Avenue B and East Ninth Street. As for the auction, Patrick Muldowney, a spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, called it "the most successful the city has had." One official said it raised about $19 million. ************************************ Henri E. Cauvin, "Activists Bugged by City Land Auction," DAILY NEWS, July 21, 1998 Police Headquarters was jumping yesterday after activists unleashed a field's worth of crickets during a land auction. Angry over the city's sale of community spaces, an ad hoc group calling itself Jiminy Cricket launched the insect invasion about 11 a.m. in the 1 Police Plaza auditorium where prospective buyers were bidding on properties the city no longer wants. With their stunt, the activists -- five of whom were arrested -- succeeded in disrupting the auction for more than a half-hour. As the crickets hopped about, hundreds of onlookers scrambled to avoid the swarms. "We're hoping he gets the idea and his nose stops growing," Wendy Madison, a spokeswoman for the group, said of Mayor Giuliani. She was referring to Jiminy Cricket, which acted as the conscience of Pinocchio in the famous children's story. Ten people left a larger group protesting outside Police Headquarters and carried the insects in manila envelopes with mesh airholes, Madison said. The arrested activists were Timothy Becker, 39; Dennis Griggs, 52; Francine Luck, 55; Clayton Patterson, 49, and Jason Spiegel. They were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration. Griggs was also charged with resisting arrest, and Patterson was charged with resisting arrest, assault and trespassing. Patrick Muldowney, a spokesman for the city agency that runs the auctions, said yesterday's sale was the most successful ever. He said any land that had been used for community purposes will continue to serve that function. "It could be a day care center. It could be an elderly center, but it has to be a community use," Muldowney said. ************************************** The Associated Press, "Activists Unleash Crickets at Auction," NEWSDAY, July 21, 1998 At least it wasn't locusts. In a protest by the activist group "Jiminy Cricket," several hundred live crickets were unleashed yesterday in the city police headquarters' auditorium, sending people scurrying for higher ground. [Ed. -- Actually, there were 10,000 crickets.] The crickets were "nature's revenge against greed," said Jiminy Cricket spokeswoman Wendy Madison. The group was protesting the city's auction of 254 parcels of publicly owned land yesterday at police headquarters. The auction was only temporarily disrupted. The group is named after the character in "Pinocchio," who said, "Let your conscience be your guide." It seeks to have city land set aside for parks, gardens, and cultural centers. The cricket attack was meticulously planned, Madison said. As about 100 members of the group protested outside the building, 10 members stood in line with other people waiting to get into the auction. "The crickets were in well-ventilated envelopes," Madison said. Police officials wouldn't say how the bugs got past security, but Madison said her group knows how to handle crickets. "They don't chirp unless they're comfortable, which is usually in a dark place out in the open," she said. "And they don't show up on the X-ray machine." The crickets helped the gruop make a "chaotic, natural disruption," Madison said. Chaotic it was. Madison said a videotape of the 11 a.m. unleashing shows people shouting and jumping on chairs to get away from the inch-long brown house crickets. Group members collected the critters from all over the city, she added. The police were not amused, arresting five people, most of them self-described "cricketeers." Madison said they were charged with obstructing governmental administration. A spokeswoman for the mayor's office, Denise Collins, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Police officials also declined to comment. ******************************************** EL DIARIO cover story, July 21, 1998 Cover text: SOLD -- Amid crickets and police, CHARAS/El Bohio Cultural Center is Auctioned Off to an Anonymous Buyer Story, page 3: CITY SELLS 'CHARAS/EL BOHIO' CULTURAL CENTER by Maria Vega A veritable wave of crickets was unleashed yesterday during the auction organized by the City government to sell a Hipanic cultural center and various community gardens. People opposed to the sale interrupted the auction at least four times. To start with, when the moment arrived for the first of the Lower East Side community gardens to be auctioned off, someone released hundreds of crickets in the middle of the auditorium, which was filled with people. [Ed.: Make that 10,000 crickets.] The auctioneer appealed in vain for the public to remain in their seats. People began standing on the chairs or exiting the room, while the crickets ran across the floor. Since the auction took place inside police headquarters, it was uniformed officers who intervened to kill the crickets and sweep part of the floor. But the cleaning job was not complete, so that when the auction began again, there were crickets walking around on the floor for the rest of the morning. The auction of this first property (which was coldly described in the auction book as a "vacant lot" but is in reality a patio that neighbors from East 5th Street cleaned, planted, and named "Villa Vitin) was interrupted two more times. On both occasions, the auctioneer accepted bids from apparent bidders who seemed prepared to pay incredible sums for the plot, but who were in reality protesters opposed to the sale. The insects and the interruptions didn't stop the City from selling the community gardens or the building that for two decades has housed the Hispanic cultural center CHARAS/El Bohio, on 9th Street in the Lower East Side. The auctioneers were forced to take extraordinary measures. Nearly 20 officers were stationed in a line at the auditorium entrance, some of whom moved into the aisles when the moment came for the CHARAS building to be sold. The minimum price that the City required was $1.125 million. There was sufficient competition that the final price climbed to $3.15 million. Various buyers and agents in the audience applauded when CHARAS was sold, but the applause was drowned out by the boos of those who opposed the sale. It was impossible to determine who bought the building. A spokesperson for the City agency in charge of the auction said that the buyer's identity will not be revealed until the formalities of the sale have been completed, which could take at least 30 days. After leaving the auction, the directors of CHARAS vowed to continue fighting to block the sale. There is already a lawsuit pending against the City, alleging that the City refused to negotiate with CHARAS to allow the organization to buy the building at low cost, as has been done with other organizations. One of the Hispanic community gardens in the Lower East Side, "La Casita," located at the corner of 5th Street and Avenue D, was sold for $160,000. The person who bought this lot also would not identify him or herself. The only members of the Lower East Side community who left the auction contented were those who maintain the "Villa Vitin" patio, also located on East 5th Street. The owner of the building adjacent to the lot bought this property, with money that had been gathered in part by neighborhood locals. Lester Rosario, one of the neighbors who cares for the space, said that members of the community hope to be able to maintain the patio as it is now. ******************************************* Lincoln Anderson, "Auction Disrupted, but Charas Is Sold," THE VILLAGER, July 22, 1998 ----------------------------------------------- Lower East Side activists shouted, threw chairs, made phony bids and, in one surprise tactic, released thousands of crickets in One Police Plaza's auditorium. But in the end, they failed to save Charas/El Bohio cultural and community center and five community gardens on city-owned vacant lots from being sold at Monday's city auction. Charas's building, a former public school, located just east of Tompkins Sq. Pk. on E. Ninth St., was bought for $3.15 million by a man who declined to identify himself to the press or describe his plan for the property, which carries a restriction for community-facility use. The restriction would allow senior housing or medical, school or church uses, among others. The property could be conveyed to the new owners in as soon as 30 days, and probably not later than 45 days, according to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. DCAS said it will reveal the buyer's name in a few days, once the sale is verified. More than half of the 35 Manhattan properties in the auction were on the Lower East Side/East Village, most of them vacant lots. Tenement-sized lots in the East Village fetched as much as half a million dollars, while some small lots on E. Houston St. sold for more than $300,000. However, the Clemente Soto Velez cultural center -- also located in a former public school -- was pulled from the auction at the last minute. Despite warnings of arrest if they disrupted the meeting or made phony bids, there were numerous outbursts by the activists, who included a mix of gardeners, squatters, artists and Charas supporters. They arrived early and probably had over 200 people of the roughly 700 in the auditorium. "Stop this process right now!" yelled one squatter repeatedly, as a garden at Fifth St. and Avenue D was being auctioned, before being escorted out by police to the activists' cheers. A woman who made a false $300,000 bid for the same garden and unfurled a "Free the Land" banner was also evicted. "Seventy thousand dollars! Shove it!" yelled squatter Michael Shenker, calling out a fake bid. "People of the Lower East Side stand your ground!" he screamed, then fell to the floor, forcing cops to drag him out. Although most of the protesters were merely ejected, five were arrested, including East Village video artist Clayton Patterson, who was charged with assaulting three officers after they removed him from the building and he tried to re-enter. "They attacked him. We have it on tape," said Elsa Rensaa, Patterson's wife. "One cop, you can clearly see, tripped him. And six rookies and two undercover cops jumped on him. He's okay. He's quite angry." As Charas's auction approached, commotion broke out, as 10,000 inch-long brown house crickets were released from envelopes around the room. Some women -- apparently activists trying to foment chaos -- stood on chairs and shrieked. "Get spray or something," said a man there to bid on Bronz properties, standing on his chair. "These things can get up your pants, forget it." "Everybody remain calm. Stay seated," said the auctioneer, trying to keep order. However, in a major glitch, the crickers did not hop about -- which would have increased the pandemonium -- but just crawled around listlessly, hardly able to chirp. "I think mayber they were in the envelopes too long," said Todd Edelman, a publicist for the gardeners, only saying that "individuals" had let out the bugs. As people wondered if the auction was over, teenage summer custodians eventually came in with brooms and started amusedly stomping and sweeping up the hapless insects. As opening bids were made for Charas, Armando Perez, Charas' artistic director and East Village Democratic district leader, shouted, "How can you do that? Do you know we have been there 19 years? . . ." before he, too was marched out by police. Charas started squatting in the building 19 years ago, when it was overrun by hookers and drug dealers and its copper roof had been stolen by scavengers. The winning bidder for Charas, with a bid of $3.15 million -- one of the day's highest bids -- was a dark-haired man in his 30s or 40s wearing a green polo shirt and khaki shorts, who declined comment. "When the time's right, I'll contact you," the buyer said. "It depends on the legal process." Perez's group is appealing a decision on a lawsuit that charges the city did not conduct an adequate review of the property's use prior to the sale. "We want to find out who this bidder is," said Perez. "I want to expose the organization that decided to bid on this property knowing what it means to the Lower East Side. We view them as the enemy, like Giuliani. Senior services, a church, it doesn't matter to me what they're going to provide. It matters to me what they're going to destroy." "We're going to put up a fight," said Carlos "Chino" Garcia, Charas's president, adding that Charas will be discussing legal options with its lawyers. However, he added, Charas can't afford costly legal fees. Charas rents out rehearsal space to artists, and provides space for many community groups and programs. Severy years ago, another former Lower East Side public school, at Forsyth and Rivington Sts., was sold and converted to an AIDS residence. A number of East Village vacant lots fetched surprisngly high prices, including a two-lot parcel on E. Eighth St. and Avenue D, which sold for $510,000; and a lot at E. 13th St. and Avenue B, sold for $550,000. A lot at E. 12th St. and Avenue A went for $385,000; while two lots on E. Eighth St. between avenues B and C, went for $350,000 and $370,000. Two lots on E. Houston St. sold for around $300,000 each. A buyer of one of the lots on E. Housing St between Avenues B and C, who did not give his name, said he plans to build condominiums, "for people who work in the Wall St. area and people from Silicon Alley." Ed Vega, Soto Velez's director, said they worked with Hispanic politicians, particularly Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo -- who supported Mayor Giuliani in the last election -- and Giuliani ally Herman Badillo. "A lot of people pulled for us," said Vega. "Our strategy was to be very respectful of the city. Mr. Badillo was probably involved. We called some people who have his [Badillo's] ear, for help." Vega said Soto Velez's board of directors must now try to convince the Giuliani administration that they have a viable plan for the cultural center's future. As to why Charas was sold and not Soto Velez, some thought it was "political suicide" for Charas to have allowed the Latin Kings to use the facility as a weekend meeting place, and that Charas had too much "political baggage." The Bread and Puppet Theater brought a busload of people from Vermont, who performed skits and music outside One Police Plaza, where there was a lively pro-Charas demonstration. ******************************************* EL DIARIO editorial, July 23, 1998 "Community group: 0 Real estate interests: 1" No, it wasn't the score of yesterday's competition at the Goodwill Games. It's the demise of Charas/El Bohio, an important Latino cultural center in downtown Manhattan. For years, the community activists who run Charas/El Bohio have managed not only to house film, theater, and art programs, but also to provide low-cost studio space to neighborhood artists. Now their base, a once abandoned school building, has been sold for little over $3 million to a still unknown buyer. Their prime location, near Tompkins Square Park in an ever-so-much gentrified East Village, was a highly desired prize for real-estate interests. Who could blame them? Unfortuately, such a deal comes at the expense of the Latino community of Loisaida. Years ago, when no one who was not a resident dared to walk east of avenue A, the activists of Charas/El Bohio were working hard to make the area liveable for local residents. With little or no financial support they managed to keep the center and its many activities going. And now, when plenty of people are ready to shell out a pretty penny for an East Village loft, the city conveniently puts their building on the auction block. Whoever thinks the survival of the Centro Cultural Clemente Soto Velez on Suffolk St. should make up for the loss, should think again. CSV is almost 15 blocks away, practically in a different neighborhood. The people behind Charas/El Bohio claim their building was auctioned off as political retaliation, since they also house a number of activist organizations. And because they frequently and openly antagonized Mayor Giuliani and Loisaida ex-councilmember Antonio Pagan. They argue the city never gave them a fair chance to buy the property. A current lawsuit will decide if that was the case. In the meantime, Charas/El Bohio will be missed. *** The Mighty Email Army is a direct action-oriented list of community garden supporters and their allies, sponsored by the Lower East Side Collective (212-774-4192; http://home.earthlink.net/~aliceme/lesc). To join, write to gardens@cybergal.com; feedback always welcomed. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytnyc-07.26.98-11:17:01-18481