[Savviioor]

Few Things Fuel Debate Like a Sweet Apartment Deal

July 12, 2008
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

Morton Perry was walking down West 135th Street in Harlem on Friday afternoon just as Representative Charles B. Rangel was finishing a sidewalk news conference defending his four rent-stabilized apartments in the Lenox Terrace towers.

“I have a dream,” intoned Mr. Perry, 54, a retired hospital worker occupying decidedly less luxurious quarters on 132nd Street, “that one day I can live in a condo.”

He said he had long voted for Mr. Rangel, a Democrat who is chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, but would not do so again.

“I really thought he was about something and was for this community,” Mr. Perry told onlookers and reporters. “But how can you be for the community if you’re taking from the community? Don’t swallow all the wealth. Share it. That’s unacceptable. No one can condone this.”

Throughout a gentrifying Harlem and the precincts of cyberspace, Mr. Rangel’s living arrangements, as detailed on Friday in The New York Times, stirred spirited debate, from denunciations of the congressman as a hoarder of scarce housing to accolades for a faithful native son.

That longtime residents are being priced out by the real estate boom — “Now You Can Have a 5th Avenue Address,” beckons a sign at the new St. Claire condominiums at 128th Street, boasting white oak floors, gas fireplaces and a private massage room — seems to have fueled the resentment.

Signs of poverty endure: the colony of homeless living under the Park Avenue railroad trestle on 125th Street, including Junior Carter, 53, a former printer, who sat in a wheelchair with all his belongings on the street and said he would be happy to take one of Mr. Rangel’s apartments.

“I ain’t got a room right now,” he said. “I ain’t got nothing. Who’s going to pay for it?”

Mr. Rangel, the Times article said, lives in three adjacent units on the 16th floor of the prestigious development and uses a 10th-floor apartment as an office. Last year, he paid $3,894 a month in rent for the units, about half the market value if the units were decontrolled.

Some found no fault with the congressman’s arrangement.

“Rangel was living in Lenox Terrace since back when no one wanted to live in Harlem,” said Walter Dawkins, 74, a retired school social worker who lives three blocks away.

“He and the other politicians came here to stabilize the neighborhood. He is a representative of the community and it only stands to reason that he should live in the heart of the community.”

In a posting to the City Room blog on The Times’s Web site, a reader identifying himself as Dan Stackhouse said Mr. Rangel got the units “by intelligently seizing an excellent deal decades ago and then just sticking with it.”

“Congratulations on your good luck,” he wrote, “and stick with Harlem no matter how irritating the press gets.”

But others belittled any claim of loyalty to Harlem. “Well of course he lives in this neighborhood — it’s his district!” a reader identifying himself as Christopher said in another posting to The Times. “It’s not like he had the choice of moving to SoHo or Forest Hills, because doing so would have meant giving up his job.”

Other critics included some residents of Lenox Terrace, six buildings comprising 1,700 units between 132nd and 135th Streets and Fifth and Lenox Avenues, built in 1958.

“I feel he’s outright wrong,” Naiema Inniss, 17, a Lenox Terrace neighbor and high school student, said in an interview. “There are a lot of people struggling, and he’s got four apartments? I don’t think that’s O.K. at all. No matter how much authority you got, what’s fair is fair.”

Manie Barron, 52, a literary agent who has lived in Lenox Terrace for five years, said: “I don’t think he should leave his apartment. I just think he should pay market value like I’m paying.”

Lionel Perez, 32, a restaurant worker from East Harlem, agreed. “I don’t think it’s right,” he said. “I’m struggling myself to try and keep the apartment that I have. He uses one as an office? That’s crazy.”

Sonya Murray, 40, a lifelong resident of Lenox Terrace and an administrative assistant, tied the resentment of Mr. Rangel to complaints that tenants had with the building management. “It’s hard to see that we’re going through so much and he can live here in luxury,” Ms. Murray said. “There are a lot of problems with housing in the community. I was just in housing court, and it’s overcrowded with people with these issues.”

Andre Mitchell, 25, who lives in the Bronx, works in construction and was visiting a friend at Lenox Terrace, could barely contain his envy over Mr. Rangel’s apartments. “Wow,” he said, “Let me get one. You can’t get mad at him, because he got a good deal. He got lucky. I wouldn’t want everyone to be mad at me if I got such a good deal.”

Some fellow politicians came to Mr. Rangel’s defense. “Well, he lives in New York City and he lives in his Congressional district, and that’s what’s important,” said Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat who represents Washington Heights, which is in Mr. Rangel’s district.

“Why should everybody be concerned about his personal living situation?” Mr. Espaillat continued. “The fact of the matter is that he’s been a trailblazer for people in this community and he works hard for Harlem. I think he’s a great New Yorker. Anyone who has an issue with that should take a shower.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/ny.../12harlem.html