Tom is a proud East Village Resident

15Apr07

Saturday, April 14, Tom, Trickydame (along with their friend Colleen) gathered with about 150+ other long time East Village residents to support the residents of 47 E 3rd St who are fighting a mass eviction by their landlords, the Ekonomakis family, who claim they want the entire 15 unit building for their personal use. They want to turn a Lower East Side 5-story tenement into a 60 room mansion for themselves, their 2 children and their nanny!. The outcome of this case can affect tenants city-wide and give owners yet another tool to mass evict rent-regulated tenants in any building in NYC.

Earlier this year the State Appellate Court OVERTURNED the injunction protecting tenants from mass eviction by Alistair and Catherine Economakis, ruling instead that there is NO LIMIT to the amount of apartments or floors landlords can claim for “personal use.” THIS CASE IS REDEFINING THE LAW AND WILL IMPACT ALL NYC TENANTS. Governor Spitzer and Attorney General Cuomo need to intervene NOW.

It’s too bad that Tom didn’t win the NYC Mayoral race because if he was MAYOR of NYC, he would find ways to allow new business to come into the city without KICKING out the people who made the city what is today. NYC is a place to create not only MONEY but also MAGIC PASSION LOVE! It’s possible to have both.

There were many speakers, including longtime residents of 47 E 3rd Miriam Garcia, who raised 2 sons, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, Manhattan President Scott Stringer were among the NYC politicians who spoke up for this growing injustice. Since 2002, almost 4000 rent stablized apartments have been lost. One of the comments made yesterday which Tom feels is so important, so many people moved into this neighborhood 20+ years ago when no one wanted to live here – no developers were interested in investing money, no banks wanted to lend money so in came the working class, the artists, the pioneers. They made the East Village what it is today and now that it’s nice, and “profitable” – they greedy want to kick out the residents.

Tom moved to the East Village, 14 years ago and Trickydame joined him a year later in 1994, it was a dream of theirs to come to NYC to live in a neighborhood where they could flourish as artists & activists. They didn’t come to the East Village to change it, they came to be a part of it. This is a a local issue but it’s a national issue too!

What is happening to the working class and middle class in the USA? Are citizens able to purchase homes – affordable homes? Are citizens able to live in areas of their dreams!? Are citizens able to earn decent wages?
The USA is a rich and prosperous country and we can not let the GREEDY take it over. The Tom 4 Prez campaign is going to do its best to get these issues out to the public and the media!

There were news teams from Fox 5, ABC 7, and MY 9 walking around – however, Trickydame only found online coverage on the Fox 5 website.

Contribute to the tenants’ legal defense fund (http://www.47e3.org/contribute.php).