220 NEW YORK ARTISTS ARE SUDDENLY HOMELESS . . .YOU CAN HELP!
10-25-07 POST KEYWORDS: New York, Artists, Evicted, Help, NY1, SVA, Artsucks.com, Cojo
Doesn't it suck when artists get fucked over? Some of my former SVA classmates contacted me over the last couple of days about a pretty serious situation involving 220 or so disfranchised tenants of an artist loft in Queens. 80-90 percent of the residents were artists of some sort; writers, photographers, designers, people in the fashion industry, art teachers, musicians, as well as painters and sculptors ( Many had pets, many were SVA alumni).
If you are living in the NY area you may have read these articles in NY 1 , New York Times , or The Gothamist .
Well, here is an exclusive first hand description of what happened from one of my fellow alums detailing exactly what went down from the tenants' perspective, and how you can help this artist community the city forgot:
image: the building in question 1717 Troutman St.- from the Gothamist article
"The Department of Buildings gave notice that they were coming for an inspection Thursday Oct. 18 at 9:30 am. That was all we were told, and that was the night before, on Wed. Oct. 17. Later in the day on Thursday, people who were in the building started spreading the word that the DOB was going to padlock the doors and that people had to get out immediately. They claimed numerous safety violations, including only one exit (the second one has a chain on it for some reason), non working sprinklers (who knows if that is true) and a boarded up elevator shaft that no one uses. (we all used the freight when necessary, which has been shut down because it was deemed unsafe). They gave us until 10:00 pm to get out. But they started clearing the place out a little early.
Around 9- 9:30 the firemen started coming around with their axes, and if you didn't answer the door, it was chopped down. Seriously. People who were out of town had their doors busted in, and one couple had cats still in the apartment while they were out of town, and were trying to find out via e-mail what happened to them.
It was pretty terrifying. My cats were freaked. We went to stay with a friend, which is hard to do when you are a couple and have two cats. Not exactly a great house guest. The red cross was there giving out crappy dinners and room vouchers out in bay ridge for one night only. Then they had a shelter option, which sounded scary. The ASPCA were taking animals of anyone who wanted, promising just to keep them and not put them to sleep (not something I would be comfortable with). There was a priest there asking people if they were OK, just like they did in the 70s.
Obviously the city knew they were going to condemn the building that night, but didn't tell us. They had to be planning for weeks in advance. They said they told the landlord, and it was his job to inform us, so not to blame them.
I have to go to the apartment now. We are only allowed in during certain hours (not long enough), with the last day being on Sunday, and there is some weird stuff going on. Someone turned the water off, then back on, and the landlord is sounding shadier.
We just want time to get our stuff out and the elevator turned back on. Actually, some people want to be able to move back into the building. There are different goals of the tenants, but we are all uniting because this was an obvious injustice. If the building was in such imminent peril, why did they plan on everything for two weeks before kicking us out? They should have given us more time. And our land lord sucks. We aren't going to get our deposits back, I'm sure. He denied knowing anyone lived there, when he talked to all of us and knew we all lived there. He is also claiming the city is racist (he is Hasidic)."
If YOU want to help, they are holding a press conference this Friday. Here's the info:
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 10:00am
Troutman Studios 1717 Troutman St Flushing, NY 11385-1034 btwn. Cypress and Seneca (L train to Jefferson Street) Queens (VIEW MAP).
Come out and support the 220 tenants that were evacuated by the DOB and left homeless on 10/18/07. Bring friends and family to show our strength and unity.
