IPNTA Newsletters

July 2004

Our Struggle Continues—And We Need Your Help

A word from our new President

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the next phase in our ongoing struggle to keep our homes affordable and comfortable.

We are now in the so-called transition phase, moving from Mitchell-Lama to a private complex. As with any transition, it is not easy, but we — IPNTA — are still actively dealing with, frankly, a hellish situation.

So far we have been addressing over 300 individual tenant problems: lease issues, voucher issues, LAP issues, pet issues and so many more we can barely enumerate them. We try to contact every single tenant who has notified us of their situation. It seems that there is a new crisis every day.

We now have several functioning committees.These include the Transition Committee, helping hundreds of tenants navigate through the difficulties of dealing with HPD, etc.; the Environmental Committee, now headed by Harriet Grimm, working with Stellar management on testing the window replacements in empty apartments throughout the complex to advocate on behalf of tenants’ health and safety; the Political Action Committee, headed by John Scott, now a VP of the Dowtown Independent Democrats and working closely with the Working Families party; and Virginia Clammer, working on numerous issues as a member of our “extended” board. Also, we have three new people on the board: Ella Biondi, Judy Bernstein, Jean Hartman.

Here’s one of our recent victories: Our former “security” director, Mike Grasso, who had been fired from the NYPD for brutality, is now gone.

So please, during this very difficult time, have patience. And continue to support us in our unending fight to save and improve our homes. If you have not renewed your membership this year, we will send you a reminder.

We need you, both as regular members, as volunteers on our various activities, and to contribute to our defense fund for lawyers, lobbyists, communication, and all our other expenses.

Thank you for all your support. And let us all “keep on keeping on.” — Diane Lapson

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