Artists Tossed into the Street- 475 Kent Evacuated

If I was a resident of 475 Kent in NYC right now I would probably not have anywhere to live, and very little of my own possessions with me.

Last week was a very bad week for the artist community that has called the building home for years. Sunday, January 20th the community located in Brooklyn's waterfront neighborhood of Williamsburg was issued a Vacate Order by the NYC Fire Department at 7:30pm, being told that the building was unsafe and immediate action had to be taken.

It must have been a bomb, right? Or fire? Or unsafe wiring? I mean, 200 tenants given until 2:30 in the morning to get out in the middle of a 30 degree weather. Think again. The fracus was caused by what we all know and fear....two 10; diameter metal canisters containing grain used for making Matzo. Sakes alive! Alkida-you must be behind this travesty.

Turns out that the FDNY inspected the basement and noticed a Matzo bakery operating on the site...might I mention that the building, which is inspected quite often, has been home to said bakery for more than ten years. But, on that night the grain resulted in a "hazardous emergency" situation that gave the FDNY and the DOB license to vacate the building. When the landlord and several residents offered to alleviate the problem and remove the "dangerous" grain from the premisis they were told "they were not qualified to move the grain". Dangerous, dangerous grain.

Folks, can you say "follow the money". Talk about yelling fire in a theater. Here's a snippet from the press release sent out by the residents association....

"Upon the issue of the vacate order 200 people scrambled to rid 110 spaces of their most crucial belongings. The following day people were given 6 hours access to remove their belongings, tools and equipment, a scenario that for most people who had been in residence for 5 - 10 years with substantial equipment and installations was completely untenable. From there the scene snowballed.

On Tuesday January 22, tenants arrived with moving trucks at 10am having been told they would have another 6 hours access to the building. They found all entrances blocked by NYPD and FDNY and no one was allowed upstairs. Finally, at 1pm the leaders of each agency stood on the staircase and delivered their plan to the crowd:- residents would be allowed into the building six people at a time for one hour, followed by another group of six people each being granted one hour.

Do the math.

No, I'll do it for you. 200/6= 33.3 hours it would take to allow each person ONE hour access to collect their stuff.

Then they shut down the elevators, insuring that the task was impossible. People, in a panic that this would be their last chance to save their belongings, began to carry equipment and valuables down ten flights of stairs, creating a real hazard."

As of Wednesday, the grain has been removed. But, tenants are still being evicted. On Saturday night the building will be padlocked for the foreseeable future. Although requested repeatedly the DOB has never provided a complete list of the violations on the building. They do know that one of these violations is an inoperable sprinkler system, a problem that can mitigated with the presence of fire-guards while the system is repaired, allowing continued occupancy of the building.

Does this sound like total crap to you? It does to me. I'll say no more, I'll just close by giving you the last of the press release. And, if you've got a sheckel to share, you can go to http://www.475kent.com/ and help these poor folks out.


"Since the 1960's New York City's tacit urban renewal policy has been reliant on artist's moving into derelict buildings in less desirable neighborhoods. The city does nothing to bolster or support economic activity in these down and out areas, nor do they do anything to create affordable, legal, usable space for live/work entrepreneurs. 475 Kent is a prime example of this kind of turn-a-blind-eye urban renewal that has been a boon to the City of New York. A decade ago South Williamsburg was a dangerous neighborhood. Once artists take the initiative to live on the edge and restore and renew unused real estate in what were marginal areas the City becomes predatory. The transformation of Williamsburg by the artist community into one of New York City's most desirable neighborhoods encourages the city to move artists out as they calculate the tax revenue of luxury condo developers moving in. No one in any city agency cared about our health and safety ten years ago. Now that our building has become hot property the City is ready to muster all the powers of its many agencies to assist in the muscling of the property from the owners and the tenants. The tenants of 475 Kent Avenue call into question the hypocritical policies being put forth by the agencies of the City of New York. We cannot help but wonder what forces are driving this vacate and why the agencies are suddenly so concerned for out health and safety."