Moreover, NYCHA has taken pains to keep its public housing in good condition. Cheap rentals are precious in New York; the citywide vacancy rate for apartments renting for less than $500 was below two percent in 1993, the last year data was collected. The act of destroying even 100 units is ill-advised, Martinez admits.
But, he says, when his office asked HUD if the city could get Out of the demolition requirement, HUD refused. He says NYCHA is lobbying to get the requirement removed for future grants, planning to make HUD aware of "New York's continuing objection to some of these irrational things."
Now, Martinez says, the object of the game is to calm fears of demolition at Edgemere. Unfortunately, tenants already have reason not to believe his word.
Late last summer, shortly before he submitted NYCHA's grant application for the $22 million HOPE VI grant, Martinez promised residents--in no uncertain terms--that there would be no demolition. But on September 10, the day the application was due, HUD notified NYCHA that the equivalent of at least one building had to come down. Martinez immediately faxed Washington a letter saying he would raze the top few floors off Edgemere's four tallest buildings.
When word got back to the residents, many were sure that NYCHA and the resident council had sold them out. Council President Sandy Campbell says she even received several death threats in the ensuing weeks.
On December 18, Martinez and his staff went out to the Rockaways and apologized. They told a meeting of some 50 Edgemere and Arverne residents that there would be no "topping off," as the practice of rooftop demolition is known. Instead, 100 units on the ground floors would be gutted and replaced with community space for things like a day care center and a food co-op.
For now, tenants at Edgemere are taking it all under advise-ment. They have enlisted help from three local Legal Aid attorneys and Donald Vernon, a volunteer lawyer who was intimately involved in the Beach 41st battle.
Martinez promises he is going to do his best to communicate with tenants to enlist their support and avoid another Beach 4 1st-style fiasco. But, he adds, tenants must understand that, in the end, they have no formal power. "There are no appeals," he says. NYCHA and HUD will make all final decisions.
If that's really true, wonders tenant leader Francis Johnson, why didn't NYCHA simply move forward with HOPE VI at Beach 41st Street? "If you ask me," she says, "We were just being punished for getting involved."
