Working-Class Utopias by Robert M. Fogelson

Author:Robert M. Fogelson [Fogelson, Robert M.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780691234748
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2022-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

Ostroff and his associates were extremely reluctant to raise Co-op City’s carrying charges. They were well aware that an increase of 16.1 percent would work a severe hardship on many residents, and especially on the many elderly residents living on a fixed income. Ostroff and his associates were also well aware that unless Riverbay raised the carrying charges—and raised them by a considerable amount—Commissioner Urstadt would not approve the application for an additional $69 million. Without his approval, the State Housing Finance Agency would not increase Co-op City’s mortgage from $261 million to $330 million. And without an infusion of additional capital, Riverbay would not be able to finish Co-op City. As Ostroff put it, “Steel structures, standing ghost like against the sky, would rust.” By virtue of the nation’s rampant inflation, which was driving up the costs of virtually everything, the UHF would have to abandon its most ambitious effort to provide high-quality, low-cost housing for lower-middle- and middle-income New Yorkers. The foundation had always been committed to building the best possible housing at the lowest possible cost, Ostroff pointed out. “There comes a time, however, when obligations must be met, bills must be paid, and the financial stability of this more than $326 million enterprise [must be] preserved.”7 Ostroff and his associates were confident that most of the more than 6,000 cooperators who were then living in Co-op City would understand that the time had come.

Their confidence, it turned out, was misplaced. As Urstadt pointed out, some residents objected to the increase in carrying charges on the grounds that they “were either unaware that [an increase] was pending or that they considered the amount of [the increase] exorbitant.” Others stressed that a 16.1 percent increase would put a very heavy burden on Co-op City’s many elderly residents. Some residents claimed that they had given up rent-controlled apartments elsewhere in New York. If they had known about the increase, said one, “they would not have moved to Co-op City.” Many residents also complained that they had had no say in the decision to increase the carrying charges. Citing the poor maintenance and structural problems at Co-op City, one asked, “Why should I have to pay more when even now I’m not getting what I have paid for?” Pointing out that the elevators did not work well, that the lobbies, halls, and stairwells were filthy, that it took as long as two months to repair the ranges, refrigerators, and other appliances, and that the grounds were littered with cans, bottles, rusty nails, and broken glass, a resident of Building 11 warned that Co-op City might soon become “the world’s largest cooperative-owned slum.” “People who were willing to put up with certain inconveniences ‘in the beginning’ are finding a beginning that is endless,” said another resident.8

One of the residents who believed that the increase in Co-op City’s carrying charges was unnecessary or, at the very least, excessive was Harriet Colodney, who lived with her husband and three children in Building 5.

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