Page 9 - CooperatorNews New York September 2021

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ֶ SELF TEACHING FELLOWSHIP
FORGING THE
CONSCIOUSNESS
OF OUR BIRTH
when there is discrimination. Forcing
disclosure like this is a burden on al-
ready overworked boards.” He points
out that New York City has some of
the toughest anti-discrimination laws
in the nation; so tough, in fact, that
it’s extremely difficult for co-ops to
get away with illegal discrimination
at any level.
Unintended Consequences
As in many cases, even with the
best of intentions, additional legisla-
tion and regulation may have unan-
ticipated—or undesired—effects. In
the case of the Westchester amend-
ments, Halper says, “You’re depriv-
ing boards of some level of necessary
discretion, which is beyond the check
boxes on the forms which need to be
completed for this new measure.”
Consider cases in the past, like the
rejections of former President Rich-
ard M. Nixon and pop superstar Ma-
donna, both of whom were rejected by
co-op boards concerned about having
celebrity shareholders in their build-
ings and the added security and pub-
licity that would ensue. “Sometimes
a board needs the ability to make a
decision above and beyond finan-
cial considerations,” Halper offers.
“While of course not discriminating
on the basis of protected groups on
the basis of say, race, religion, or po-
litical affiliation—among many other
things—a board should have the dis-
cretion to say, ‘no’ for reasons other
than financial considerations.”
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apartment units and eradicate me and my
extended family’s position as shareholders
and equity owners, and our right to pass our
shares and residences on to our children. I
imagine the same has happened to hun-
dreds of residents in my immediate com-
munity, which consists of predominantly
Black and Brown people.”
Amanda T. Boston, an assistant professor
at the New York University Marron Institute
of Urban Management whose work focuses
on gentrification in New York City, provides
additional context, telling NBC News that
“The TPT program is just one in a long his-
tory of policies geared toward transform-
ing the city for more affluent and ‘desirable’ should be dismissed,” and that the appellate
residents. Black homeowners have dispro-
portionately borne the burdens of these procedural. The attorneys for the other de-
policies due to histories of structural racism fendants did not respond to requests for
and economic inequality that have, quite comment, according to NBC News’ report-
frankly, made their relationship to home-
ownership more precarious than other de-
mographics. The fact that historically Black program was suspended soon after the suit
neighborhoods are gentrification ‘hotspots’ was filed in 2019. In response to growing
only adds a historically grounded level of backlash, a working group was formed to
suspicion of a policy that seizes hard-won issue a report on the program and recom-
homes from local residents.”
New York City Law Department spokes-
man Nick Paolucci said in a statement that
“The City believes the case is meritless and
court’s advancement of the case was merely
ing.
According to the reporting, the TPT
mendations for its future.
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The DOL has emphasized that the
law requires adoption of a safety pro-
tocol within the statutory deadline,
but it does not yet include a require-
ment for activation of the protocol. At
the current time, the Commissioner of
Health has not designated any specific
airborne infectious disease—including
COVID-19—as a highly-contagious
communicable disease that presents
a serious risk of harm to the public
health.
Nevertheless, failure to comply with
the HERO Act can result in monetary
fines, agency investigations, and em-
ployee-initiated lawsuits, the law firm
warns.
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