THE POWER OF PROTEST: THE CAAAV PREVAILED!
AFTER WELL OVER A HUNDRED LETTERS IN A HUNDRED HOURS THE DOB. AGREED TO MEET.
The Department of Buildings has long been criticized for seemingly favoring developers and ignoring the concerns of the community. Those claims seemed to be substantiated last week when the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence's Chinatown Tenants Union had to initiate a letter writing campaign to coax the DOB to agree to meet to discuss tenant displacement based on landlord safety violations.
The CAAAV's 100 letters in a 100 hours campaign worked and next Wednesday they will meet with the DOB in a closed meeting to voice their concerns.
The CAAAV released a statement with the following requests of the DOB:
1) The DOB should allow all residents from 81 Bowery, 15 Catherine Street, and 32 Market Street to return to their homes immediately.
2) The DOB should require the landlord to hire fireguards at all buildings until the landlord has corrected the violations.
3) The DOB should not approve any new Certificate of Occupancy applications for these three buildings that do not allow the current residents to return to their homes.
4) The DOB should put into place a policy that allows for landlords to fix violations at the landlord's expense, rather than issuing vacate orders that penalize tenants and make them homeless.
Though the CAAAV has agreed to stop sending letters to the DOB, you can still give your letters of protest to the CAAAV directly for them to present at the meeting. For more information, email them at hwong@caaav.org.hwong@caaav.org
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