Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

At a press conference on Sunday morning, January 31st, Senator Chuck Schumer formally announced his unqualified support of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants’ effort to control the future of the community.  Speaking to the news media and a crowd of several hundred residents who braved the bitter cold to hear him and other elected officials, the senator said that while the default “would seem like chaos, there is a silver lining in this cloud.”  That lining, he explained, is made up of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two quasi-governmental agencies that are the largest creditors in Tishman Speyer’s failed venture.

Noting that he is chairman of the Senate Sub-Committee on Housing, Schumer promised to bring pressure on Fannie and Freddie to help keep the community affordable for the middle class. Although the two agencies have claimed that they don’t have the power to influence the outcome of the current situation, he said that they are, in fact, in a strong position help shape the future of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper.

Speaking in support of Senator Schumer’s position and the community were a number of our elected officials — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, and Councilmember Dan Garodnick.  Garodnick called attention to the irony of Freddie and Fannie’s huge investment in Tishman Speyer’s failed 2006 purchase.  Although the charters of the two agencies call on them to support affordable housing, he pointed out; they nevertheless invested in a venture whose success depended on ousting rent-stabilized tenants.  Again asserting residents’ interest in controlling their future, he promised to help seek a way for tenants to buy the community or to partner with an organization committed to sustaining affordability, family orientation, open spaces and responsible management. 

Al Doyle, president of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, ended the press conference on a personal note:

“First, I want to thank our elected leaders for standing with us at this important time for the complex. 

”All of us see the media coverage and see and hear the terms ‘Stuyvesant Town’ and ‘Peter Cooper Village,’ usually followed by talk about the value of the property, perhaps some mention of the history of the property, and often a discussion of the finances of the property.  Well, to the tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper, this property is not a football for various real estate moguls to fight over as a prize for their portfolios.  To us, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are OUR HOMES.

“I was born in Stuyvesant Town and I have no plans of leaving anytime soon.  I look around and see childhood friends still here, now with children of their own; I see the playground where I had my first catch with my dad as a kid; I see the small hill that seemed like an Olympic ski run when we little kids rode our sleds down it; and I see hundreds — more likely thousands — of kids today out in the open spaces doing what I did years ago.

“That is what this community is about.  This is our home.  And we are determined to make certain that our home remains the stable, family-oriented, park-like place it has been since 1947.”