From The New York Times
August 19, 2001, Sunday
THE CITY WEEKLY DESK
NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CHELSEA; Co-op With a Labor Pedigree Is Riven by a Power Struggle
By DENNY LEE (NYT) 367 words
With 2,820 apartments and a population of 4,000, Penn South could be viewed as a city within a city. The nonprofit co-op has its own security patrol, electric generators and three political parties defined solely by homegrown disputes.
Now a group of disaffected residents have formed yet another party, Penn South Independence, to wrest control from the co-op board in the election scheduled for October. The dissidents say the board is secretive and anti-union, a particularly potent accusation because the 10 buildings of Penn South, which extends from 23rd to 29th Streets between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, were sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and built to provide inexpensive housing.
''It's an autocracy,'' said Robert Diario, a founder of the new party who is running for the board. ''There's gross mismanagement here. Things are kept in secrecy. Our financial picture is getting worse.''
Specific grievances read like a litany of broken campaign promises. The Independence party, which claims about 80 members, says basic monthly charges have outstripped normal operating costs, and complains that the board refuses to divulge information like apartment waiting lists.
The group was particularly enraged by plans last year to sell a small plot of land on 29th Street to a private developer who is building a luxury residence with nonunion labor. The proposal was ultimately defeated.
Robert L. Silverstein, the board president and a member of the Assembly of Concerned Cooperatives, which holds a 10-member majority on the 15-member board, dismissed the charges as sour grapes.
''They are a bunch of dissident cooperators who are not willing to take leadership positions,'' Mr. Silverstein said. ''They just want to complain.''
Opened in 1962 in a ceremony attended by President John F. Kennedy, Penn South was seen as a housing model where New Yorkers of modest means became shareholders, aided by extensive city and state tax breaks. Even today, many residents have strong ties to unions.
DENNY LEE
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Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
