Habitat Magazine, the New York Co-op and Condo Council, and the Presidents Co-op and Condo Council interviewed New York mayoral candidates for their thoughts on issues facing the co-operative and condominium community. These interviews were conducted in front of elementary school in June 2021.
Geoffrey Mazel:
Good Morning. My name is Geoffrey Mazel and we are very excited to be with Candidate Mayor Eric Adams this morning. As you can see from his background – this is not virtual – he is a very hard working man and a very busy man these days. And we thank you for coming to us. I am a cooperative attorney and legal advisor to the President’s Coop and Condo Council, whose members represent over one hundred thousand New York City residents.
It has been estimated that over a million New Yorkers live in a cooperative or condominium. We have a couple of questions for you that will be of interest to these people. First question, the burning question everyone in our community wants to know. Have you ever lived in a cooperative? Have you ever served on a board of directors?
Eric Adams:
Yes, I was on the cooperative board and lived in a cooperative, and in fact, believe it or not, the foundation of who I am today is a cooperative. I was able to save enough money. I could really invest. It helped me alot. My first collaboration on Prospect Place. I remember the address: 425 Prospect Place.
Geoffrey Mazel:
Oh, I’ve always represented her. I know the building; I know exactly where that is.
Eric Adams:
You know what is interesting that this building became an anchor for the revitalization of the entire area. It was all working middle class, Brooklyn Heights New Yorkers, and, you know, they were bloc assemblies. And so it really became an anchor. All of the cooperatives and condominiums are the city’s anchors.
Geoffrey Mazel:
I agree with you.
As mayor, you inherit a city that is at the forefront of climate mobilization, but as we all know, it’s an expensive proposition. Cooperatives and condominiums are specifically included in the Climate Mobilization Act, while other types of housing, including rental and NYCHA housing, are not included. Cooperatives and condominiums need help to meet these ambitious goals of carbon neutrality. What ideas do you have for this purpose?
Eric Adams:
No, we are all in good hands, often thoughtful about families, one or two family houses, and we help them with discounts, reductions and all possible ways to really compensate for what we ask in the mandates we have given. We rarely do this for our cooperatives and condominiums. We have to rethink that. As I said, they have been disproportionately affected over the years. Funding should be made available to help with some of these mandates given without cooperatives and condominiums. I am open to finding clear ways. It’s a win-win situation: we ask that you upgrade your buildings. Dealing with carbon emissions is good for our environment and we should help with that so that we are not overloaded with unfunded mandates.
Geoffrey Mazel:
OK. I’m sure you know that cooperatives and condominiums have demanded the same tax treatment as other homeowners for decades. New York City has the Tax Commission that reviews and makes suggestions. As mayor, how will you approach the problem of property tax reform?
Eric Adams:
In this room? I am not the choir. I helped write the song. I met with Martha Stark when she was about to launch this call to reform our unfair tax laws. I wanted to do an Amicus Court letter, but because I wasn’t elected I wasn’t allowed to. My house in Bedford-Stuyvesant is affected by these unfair tax laws. I’m glad the lawsuit was filed with Judge Lippman and Martha Stark, the former CFO. What I’m looking forward to – I was hoping they’d pass the mandate on to the city, but they didn’t. This will fall into the lap of the next mayor. I will immediately set up a committee to look at these tax laws and find real solutions to take the pressure off cooperatives and condominiums, as well as many of the real estate owners in poorer communities. Billionaires don’t pay their share of taxes. And this is an unfair system and we will look at it fairly for the first year. We will find a real solution to finally solve this problem.
Geoffrey Mazel:
And hopefully any committee formed will be represented by the cooperative / condominium community. Because the current commission put together by Mr de Blasio had no representation from the cooperative / condominium community.
Eric Adams:
Unacceptable.
Geoffrey Mazel:
We said that. We are again talking about unfunded mandates. In addition to the Climate Mobilization Act, a large portion of the cooperative and condominium budgets are devoted to maintaining building facades, controlling elevators, upgrades, fire safety, energy, benchmarking, signage, etc. These are costly and competing requirements that have a significant impact on costs for the Have maintenance of buildings. As mayor, what will you do to meet these diverse requirements, and which mandates are particularly important to you and would you pursue?
Eric Adams:
Well, you must, you must always be careful with safety. Security is of the essence. You want a safe building, and I think you have a lot of those mandates because a lot of the people who pass them on have never really sat on a co-op board and never really saw the balance between securing it and maintaining the cost is kept down with it You can stop the light. But I know too well, as I said, that’s how I started laying the foundation of my living conditions. And so I will continue to be mayor of the city, we will use real resources and say, if we pass on these mandates, how we can also help to really supplement the costs of carrying out these mandates, these repairs, which are sometimes insurmountable for the cooperatives and condominiums all over town? We’re not doing our part, the city, to help those who stabilized this whole city of New York. So the goal is to look at everything from elevator repairs to mandates to repair a retrofit. All of these areas are vital, I think, so that we can use grants and funding from the city and use the state to take part of the course that we are giving to the cooperatives and condominiums in the city.
Geoffrey Mazel:
OK. Last question. It’s a little overt, so don’t hesitate to spruce up anything you want to say to the 1 million New York co-op / condo residents and hopefully a few, many thousands of them will see this video at some point.
Eric Adams:
Yes, the prerequisite for prosperity is public safety and justice. I am clear about that. I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and stood on street corners to protect children and families. I am watching the city I loved and I turned around as a police officer. I watch a city slowly lose the quality of life that we fought so hard for. And when you sell your cooperative or condominium, there are two questions. For the most part, people ask how good are the schools? How safe is the area? When we have an unsafe city, it affects not only your physical being and quality of life, but also your property value. I’ll make sure our city doesn’t go backwards. I will make sure you don’t see the permanent, total flood of homelessness, dirty streets, lack of urban services and align our agencies to work instead of not work. This is an important time for me, and this is an important time for so many New Yorkers. We are going through a difficult moment. We have been there before. We turned around the city back then, and we have to turn around now, trust me. In two years you will see a different city. That will improve the quality of life that we expect in the city. Thank you for having me with you.