Your Friends and Neighbors, 475 Kent Edition
It’s still unclear when or if the hundreds of tenants evacuated from 475 Kent Avenue on Sunday night will be able to move back into the building. Betsy Kelleher, who told the Times she has been fighting for years to get the building legally converted into apartments, left a post on a 475 Kent message…
It’s still unclear when or if the hundreds of tenants evacuated from 475 Kent Avenue on Sunday night will be able to move back into the building. Betsy Kelleher, who told the Times she has been fighting for years to get the building legally converted into apartments, left a post on a 475 Kent message board saying that judges are likely to allow the residents to move back in after the hazardous materials are removed: as a result of the fact that this is a multiple dwelling and there are already laws in place protecting this many tenants in ‘defacto multiple dwellings’ our lawyers can go to the court to ask for an order from a judge that says we can return to our homes. (Another conspiracy theory making the rounds: That the shut-down was payback from the Fire Department against owner Nachman Brach.) The AP, meanwhile, had a story about the many well-known photographers and artists who lived in the building, including: David Alan Harvey and Robert Clark, National Geographic photographers; Paolo Pellegrin and Alex Majoli, noted war photographers and members of Magnum Photos; Stanley Greene, who has covered the devastation in Chechnya; Kadir van Lohuizen, who has covered conflicts in Africa; Simon Lee, a visual artist; and Eve Sussman, whose exhibit at the 2004 Whitney Biennial was one of that year’s favorites.
Renowned Photojournalists Forced Out of NYC Building [AP/SI Live]
‘Commune of Creative Types’ in the Burg is Emptied Out [Brownstoner]
475 Kent: Confusion, Anger & Calls to Allow Residents Back [GL]
475 Kent Message Board [475kent.com]
Photo by D-Trubble.
11:25, the building is in an R6 zone. E-designations have to do with potential hazardous materials, which is different from the zoning.
wow. i didn’t realize there were so many artist-haters out there. most artist live in these types of buildings because they cannot afford the same amount of space in a “regular” building. i guess they should all move to the sticks and leave new york to the lawyers and stock brokers.
Armchair warrior is right–and that’s not racist. This is getting media attention and sympathy because the people getting kicked out are articulate artists. It’s classist, not racist. It’s all about class.
So….what? No one has anything to say about the landlord and HIS ‘illegal activity’ and gaming of the system?
Nothing will really happen to him and you’d rather bitch and moan about artists?
11:38 is right. I love great art, too, but artists should have to face the same realities that we all do, whether they are highly paid or not. People who are flirting the law, for whatever reason, don’t have much of a case when they’re finally called on it, even if it is the coldest night of the year.
the “special type of treatment” is being chucked out of their homes on the coldest night of the year.
keep your divisive racist claptrap to yourself.
there shouldn’t be a double standard. if they don’t allow this type of illegal conversions they shouldn’t allow it now. immigrants get kick out of illegal places all the time by the government. yet they won’t get this special type of treatment that artist/yuppies/hipsters aka well to do white people get.
is every single resident of that building a “creative type”? just wondering.
uh, prominent photographers like those mentioned don’t necessarily make a lot of money.
@11:18 ; What housing subsidies did tenants at 475 get? None.
There are plenty of programs for firefighters, police officers and the like to get housing.
There are also plenty of empty industrial spaces for them to occupy, if they want to.
This is the thing… living in these buildings isn’t any kind of luxury. You do it because your passions drive you to.
So, no matter your occupation, if you want to put up with a drafty building, vermin, loud obnoxious neighbors, industrial machinery, fumes… etc. then there’s plenty of spaces for you to use, whether you’re a firefighter or police officer.
Go do it!
I would gladly live in a ‘regular’ building, if I could make my noise there. Unfortunately this is seen as being un-neighborly… so I go elsewhere to follow my passion. You are welcome to do the same.