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URBAN GARDNER A16 | LUNCHBOX A17 | HEARD & SCENE A20 | SPORTS A21
Rolling With It
Beltran Proves
He Can Still Hit
Artist brings bagel art to park ARTS | A18
WSJ.com/NY
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SPORTS | A21
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 | A15
Financial, management
problems bedevil many
buildings transferred to
low-income owners
With a growing family, Anita
Cheng and her husband Ronaldo
Kiel jumped at the chance eight
years ago to leave their dark railroad flat in Brooklyn for a dream
apartment: a sunlit space on the
top floor of a limited-income coop in Hamilton Heights.
The century-old building had
been turned over in 1990 to its
low-income tenants for a payment of $250 each, as part of an
effort to encourage home ownership among the poor.
But over time, they and their
neighbors at 501 W. 143rd St.
learned that this experiment in
home ownership for the poor
sometimes has a downside, and
now they are working to save
their building—and their investment.
While many of these limitedincome co-ops have been successful, nearly a third are struggling
to pay tax bills, which is a sign of
poor overall financial health, according to data provided by the
city’s Independent Budget Office.
The city has about 1,000 limited-income co-ops, which over
the past five years have accounted for nearly half of all delinquent tax payments from the
city’s more than 4,800 co-ops.
Many housing experts say that
CASSANDRA GIRALDO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BY JOSH BARBANEL
Ronaldo Kiel, in blue at left, is joined by his co-op neighbors in front of their building at 501 W. 143rd St.
The group hopes to save their financially struggling building, which could be taken over by the city.
in problem buildings, management is often lax, maintenance
fees are kept too low to pay bills
and care for buildings, and many
are run by fiefs of shareholders
around whom swirl allegations of
favoritism and corruption.
“They view themselves as tenants rather than as apartment
owners,” said Steven R. Wagner, a
co-op and condo lawyer, who often warns buyers about the risks
of buying what are known formally as Housing Development
Fund Corp., or HDFC, co-ops.
“They are not used to the responsibility of managing a building or
running what can be a multi-million-dollar business.”
Last month, the Kiels and their
neighbors received a city “notice
of possible foreclosure” citing
$3.2 million in unpaid water bills,
taxes, interest and penalties, totaling about $85,000 per apartment.
The co-op had accumulated
hundreds of violations and had
stopped holding annual meetings,
distributing annual financial
statements or paying bills from
the city.
“The accountant was the first
to go,” said Yvette Hanon, a managing agent who has run the
building for two decades. She said
what was happening to the building was “very depressing” but
that there just wasn’t enough
maintenance revenue coming in
to do much more than pay the
heating bill.
Starting in 1981, the city created more than 1,000 low-income
co-ops from a backlog of abandoned buildings seized during the
city’s 1970s financial crisis.
Christopher Allred, an assistant city housing commissioner
for asset management, said the
co-ops were “largely a success
story.”
“Most of the co-ops are wellfunctioning, affordable housing
resource for their shareholders,
and they have stabilized thousands of lives,” he said.
Over the years, he said, the
city has increased training for
residents of new co-ops and
spelled out the obligation of coops in formal agreements with
the city. Ms. Cheng had asked the
city to investigate 501 W. 143rd,
but Mr. Allred said it doesn’t have
the authority to intervene.
“We take a tough-love approach,” he said. “They are the
owners, and as the owners they
are responsible for making decisions on their property.”
At the request of The Wall
Street Journal, the city’s Independent Budget Office compiled five
years of city property tax bills for
a list of limited-income co-ops.
The analysis found that by June
2014, 32.8% of the co-ops owed at
least one year’s taxes, 26.9% owed
two years’, and one in eight owed
five years’. The tallies exclude
buildings that were billed less
than $100 a year in taxes.
Of all taxes, interest payments
and other fees billed during the
fiscal year ending in June 2014,
Please see CO-OP page A16
STEVE REMICH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Catholic Church Elevates Two Priests in Brooklyn
NEW ROLES: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, center, blessed James Massa at a ceremony Monday where he and Witold Mroziewski (not shown) were ordained as auxiliary bishops for the
Diocese of Brooklyn at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. The ceremony was attended by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, left, and more than 30 bishops and archbishops from across the U.S.
De Blasio: No More Business Deals Between City and Trump
Composite
Mr. Trump didn’t represent New
Yorkers’ views. He described Mr.
Trump’s comments about Mr.
McCain as unacceptable and reprehensible, and he called on Mr.
Trump to apologize.
Mr. Levine, chairman of the
council’s Committee on Parks and
Recreation, said he believed the
city should immediately cancel
the contracts with Mr. Trump
that allow him to operate highprofile attractions because his remarks are offensive to immigrants and others.
“We want everyone in our
DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
As far as Mayor Bill de Blasio
is concerned, New York City
won’t be inking any new business
deals with Donald Trump.
“We’re certainly not looking to
do any business with him going
forward,” Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said Monday in reference to
Mr. Trump, a Republican presidential candidate whose real estate empire holds a sizable portfolio in New York.
The mayor’s remarks came
amid a so-called Dump Trump
campaign launched by Councilman Mark Levine, a Manhattan
Democrat who has urged the de
Blasio administration to cut city
contracts with Mr. Trump in response to controversial remarks
he has made during his presidential campaign.
The real estate mogul has
long-standing ties to New York
City, operating a handful of landmark attractions, including the
carousel and ice skating rinks in
Central Park and the Ferry Point
golf course in the Bronx.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump
said the presidential candidate
has repeatedly come to the city’s
aid to keep the concessions running smoothly when the city
couldn’t. Mr. Trump won a contract to run Wollman and Lasker
rinks in the 1980s after the city
struggled to manage the attractions.
“Donald feels a thanks is in order, rather than these type of
reprimands,” said Ron Lieberman, an executive vice president
at the Trump Organization.
Last month, when he announced his bid for the GOP
nomination, Mr. Trump drew
criticism when he said many
Mexicans crossing the border are
“rapists” who are bringing drugs
and crime into the country.
Mr. Trump elicited a fresh
storm of controversy Saturday
when he said Sen. John McCain,
a prisoner of war for five years in
Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”
He said Mr. McCain, an Arizona
Republican, was considered “a
war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t
captured.”
On Monday, Mr. de Blasio said
Donald Trump on the presidential campaign trail Saturday in Ames,
Iowa, where he said Sen. John McCain was ‘not a war hero.’
parks system to feel relevant and
included,” said Mr. Levine, adding
he believes the city has “wide latitude” in the management of its
concession contracts, including
the right to cancel them “at will.”
Mr. Lieberman said the contracts are protected by the First
Amendment. “They’re not terminable at will. These contracts are
fully binding.”
Mr. de Blasio has said his administration is reviewing Mr.
Trump’s contracts. But he said
Monday that he was unsure the
city has the legal grounds to act.
Later, a mayoral spokeswoman
confirmed that the administration doesn’t have the legal basis
to “support a policy of terminating contracts at will because of
speech-protected rights under
the First Amendment.”
Councilman Steven Matteo,
the council’s GOP leader, said the
Dump Trump campaign was misguided. “We are not going to like
everything that one of our fellow
New Yorkers thinks, says or does,
but that does not mean we
should stop doing business with
those people,” he said.
P2JW202000-4-A01500-1--------NS
BY MARA GAY
FRANK ELTMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
When the Co-op Becomes a Quagmire
Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley
Crash
Site
Raised
Concern
BY JOE JACKSON
AND CHRIS FRANCESCANI
The eastern Long Island intersection where four young
women died Saturday when their
limousine was struck by a pickup
has been an ongoing source of
problems as limousines navigate
legal but tricky U-turns that can
interfere with oncoming traffic,
officials said Monday.
Southold Town Police Chief
Martin Flatley said his officers
had been warning drivers and
writing summonses—he estimated 10 to 12 a month during
the summer wine-tour season—
for failing to yield the right of
way to westbound vehicles in
Cutchogue at Route 48 and Depot Road.
The pickup, driven by Steven
Romeo, 55 years old, of Southold,
was westbound on Route 48
when it smashed around 5:15
p.m. into the limousine making a
U-turn at Depot Lane after leaving Vineyard 48, a winery.
“Over the last two to three
years we’ve had issues with limousines making very difficult
turns at that intersection,” Chief
Flatley said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said that
while U-turns where the crash
occurred were legal, “many of
the drivers are making a
turn...[and] are virtually blocking the two westbound lanes.
Then they are backing up and
continuing on.”
Mr. Romeo has pleaded not
guilty to a misdemeanor charge
of driving while intoxicated.
Four passengers and the limousine’s driver survived the crash.
Three of the victims died at
the scene, and a fourth at a hospital, Mr. Spota said. Those who
survived suffered “very serious
physical injuries,” he said.
Mr. Spota said the limousine
driver Carlos Pina, 58, told authorities he “did not see the red
pickup truck as he proceeded to
make the turn.” Tests showed
Mr. Pina wasn’t under the influence of any alcohol or drugs, Mr.
Spota said.
Authorities have a witness to
the crash who was traveling
east, Mr. Spota said. “He sees
the limo make the U-turn and he
was able to see a red truck heading in a westbound direction,”
Please see CRASH page A20
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