Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

With Borough President Scott Stringer on hand to cheer them on their way, a busload of more than 50 Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Tenants Association activist members — many wearing our distinctive yellow tees —travelled to Albany on Wednesday, June 1, to talk with lawmakers or their staff members about the importance of strengthening as well as renewing rent-stabilization laws.
Aware that other groups were focusing on the same issue, the ST/PCV group also went armed with talking points on the Roberts ruling, which ordered landlords who had been accepting J51 benefits to return thousands of market rate apartments to rent-stabilized status.  They were gratified to discover that much of the information they provided was the first some legislators or their aids understood what was at stake with the Roberts ruling.
Councilmember Dan Garodnick, who stayed with the group throughout the day, made lively use of the two-hour bus trip to conduct a “rolling town hall,” providing information on the legislators they would be visiting and discussing strategy for making the most effective use of their time.
In order to visit as many legislators as possible, the group split into four teams, led by Tenants Association board members Stephen Newmark, Judith Preble Mille and Virginia Rosario and multi-tasking volunteer Sherry Kirschenbaum.  In all, they met with key staff of more than a dozen Senate and Assembly Members, including the chiefs of staff to Vito Lopez, Chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, and Liz Krueger, who is on the Senate Housing Committee.
Several members of the delegation reported that one highlight of their day came when they attended a press conference held by the Joint Senate and Assembly Black, Latino, Puerto Rican and Asian Legislative Caucus.  Its members called on Governor Cuomo to provide specifics on his promise to strengthen rent protections. 
Acknowledgement of the renown of the Tenants Association, the Stuy Town-Peter Cooper group received a standing ovation when they were introduced from the floor of the Assembly Chambers.
Tenants Association president Al Doyle expressed his thanks to those who devoted a full day to the Albany trip and to the Regional Leaders, Margaret and Sherry, all our Building and Zone Leaders and Ann’s Message Center volunteers who provided vital support in spreading word of the Albany action and managing reservations for the bus. 
In remarking on the success of the expedition, Doyle emphasized, “Action is still needed.  We urge all Stuy Town and Peter Cooper residents who care about our community to continue writing those e-mails, sending those postcards and making those phone calls to Governor Cuomo.  We have to do everything we possibly can to ensure that New York’s rent laws are renewed and strengthened and that no one tampers with Roberts.”