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Battling the Worst List Landlords

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Battling the Worst List Landlords

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Finding a home to rent can be something of a physical and emotional obstacle course. Community-minded landlords have a business ethic that supports local residents occupying their homes. Landlords with a maximum profit as their only bottom line frustrate the issue, as considerations of the renter, come a distant second to the high-income-based criteria.


Being on the worst landlord list does not seem to deter some of the said offenders as they rack up violations ad nauseum. A call or two to Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) does not amount to immediate repairs or recompense. Rats, leaking roofs, no hot water or heat, and peeling paint are complaints that renters simply endure with tone-deaf landlords, as they may withhold rent, open escrow accounts, protest, and file Housing Court appeals.


On Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ city-wide Worst Landlord Watchlist, there were a total of 626 buildings that house a total of 13,541 units. From November 2022 to October 2023, these buildings averaged 69,018 open Housing Preservation and Development violations.


In his information, PA Williams says his Worst Landlord Watchlist is an “information-sharing tool that enables tenants, public officials, advocates, and other concerned individuals to identify which residential property owners consistently flout City laws intended to protect the rights and safety of tenants.”


On Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024, Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman hosted a press conference on Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, “the site of the number 3 worst landlord in NYC and the number 1 worst landlord in Brooklyn, according to the NYC Public Advocates 2023 Worst Housing List.”


Aiming to stabilize the housing market by preventing outside speculators “who are proven scammers and deed thieves from further disrupting community ecosystems and inflating property taxes,” Assemblywoman Zinerman has introduced “The House New Yorkers First Bill,” A9744. If passed in both houses, she said that it gives New Yorkers the chance to build back generational wealth. Meanwhile, dealing with substandard housing creates all manner of social and economic ills.


“We rallied against the injustices faced by countless tenants trapped in cycles of neglect and mistreatment. Housing is a fundamental right, yet far too many people endure mold-infested homes, lacking heat, hot water, or gas,” Assemblywoman Zinerman told Our Time Press, “We take the fight to the doorsteps of violators, empowering tenants with vital resources they need to safeguard themselves and increasing accountability for landlords through creating new legislation that expands the Worst Landlord List to upstate counties and increases penalties against the violators. Together, we demand safe, affordable, and fair housing for every community.”


According to the December 2023 Watchlist data, there are 335 developments mentioned reflecting 177,569 units, with 618,310 Open Work Orders (Jan 2023—Nov 2023), with an estimated $78,340,000,00 in cost of repairs.


The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) also finds itself on the Public Advocate’s Watchlist. “The city itself remains the overall worst landlord in New York City,” he tweeted.
While the HPD does not issue violations to NYCHA buildings, the number of issued and open work orders is taken into account.


Neither NYCHA nor the HPD responded to an Our Time Press request for comment.
Slumlords notoriously attempt to shield their liability with LLC registrations.
Johnathan Santana earned the dubious title of New York’s number one slumlord in the December 2023-released Watchlist. Reported as the head officer of 15 of the listed buildings with 3,293 violations, Daniel Ohebshalom is also listed as the designated head officer for the buildings. PA Williams is unimpressed with the tactic of the scofflaw landlords with their “widespread, unchecked, repeated violations that have led to horrific conditions at their properties.”


Last month Ohebshalom turned himself in to serve a 60-day stint in Rikers according to HPD for “endangering tenant health and safety and neglecting two Washington Heights buildings [705 and 709 West 170th Street in Manhattan], that have racked up 700 open housing violations, according to officials,” said Pix 11.
He was punched in the face on the second day of his jail term.


PA Williams said, “Johnathan Santana and Daniel Ohebshalom may be shameless in their negligence and predatory practices, as is clear in their record violations, but it’s clear that spotlighting and shaming them and other worst landlords in the city can have a meaningful impact.”


He stands by his December 2022 quote, “As rents rose, so did the average number of housing violations. There were nearly 30% more average violations on the list this year, and the top 10 worst landlords had a 44% increase. Jonathan Santana had 106% more average violations than the 2021 worst landlord.”


HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr., said, “Slumlords in New York City are officially on notice. Landlords in New York City will not get away with putting our families in unsafe, unhealthy, and downright unlivable conditions.”


Our Time Press was unable to reach representatives for either Santana or Ohbeshalom for a response by press time.

Ernani Silva’s Global Vision Art Gallery in Ft. Greene Has Opened

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Ernani Silva’s Global Vision Art Gallery in Ft. Greene Has Opened

Inaugural Exhibit, “Faces, Figures, Fantasy,” Featuring Works by Photographer Charles Martin on View through May 16

by Bernice Elizabeth Green
Ernani Silva’s Global Vision Art Gallery, located at 87 Ft. Greene Place, Brooklyn, opened on April 27, with its first exhibit titled “Faces, Figures, Fantasy,” celebrating the works of photographer Charles Martin. Martin, also an accomplished journalist, filmmaker and author, is known worldwide for his use of the camera as a stop-motion device, capturing the point at which incidental moments of real-life transfer their powers to memory.

His photographic abstractions have been described as a form of “instants” in live action when moment transfers its power to memory.

Artist Charles Martin at Global Vision Art Gallery. Photo: Bernice Elizabeth Green


Martin, also an accomplished writer and journalist, employs the camera as story-telling tool with himself in the role of facilitator as opposed to documenter, resulting in each observer providing a singular narrative. It can be said that Martin’s camera is the eye that launched and inspired a thousand points of view all over the world. As a testament to his global outreach, Martin’s photographs have been exhibited in numerous one-person and group exhibitions throughout the United States, in Europe and in South America.


Global Vision Art Gallery’s “Faces, Figures, Fantasy” exhibition also offers other interesting pieces from Martin’s extensive body of work, including photographic portraits of such notables as the legendary activist Angela Davis and the beloved writer Toni Morrison.

A photograph Martin took of himself with Global Vision Art Gallery founder Silva is so much of a standout in the Gallery, it has — and deserves — a wall of its own.


Silva and Martin’s colleague Minna Dunn (curator for the Joysetta and Julian Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County) offered her view of Martin’s work to Our Time Press, this past Sunday at Silva’s warm, lively reception attended by area art lovers and collectors. “Martin’s abstracts are stunning. They display fleeting everyday life-moments frozen in time at the nexus of present becoming past.”


The Pennsylvania-born Charles Martin who lives in New York City, has an MA and PhD in Spanish and Portuguese languages from the Yale School of the Arts, where he also studied photography.

His works have been exhibited in the U.S., at such cultural venues as The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of the City of New York, The Center for Photographer at Woodstock. Expect to see more interesting art at Global Vision Art Gallery, located in the heart of Brooklyn’s growing cultural arts district, and just across from the historic Brooklyn Academy of Music.


“Faces, Figures, Fantasy” will be on view at Global Vision Art Gallery through Thursday, May 16. Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00am to 6pm. Contact: 516-993-2136.


Silva contributes to Our Time Press as a Guest Editor- Arts &Culture in one of Our Time Press’s special June Men’s Month and Juneteenth issues

Asase Yaa Gala Celebrating 20-Years of Community Empowerment and Giving Forward

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Asase Yaa Gala Celebrating 20-Years of Community Empowerment and Giving Forward

By Bernice Elizabeth Green
For more than two decades, Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation, Inc. (AY) has inspired families, young people and the community to learn about their history and culture through the study and performance of the dance and music of the African Diaspora.


And a powerful testament to the nonprofit’s success is that many former students return to teach others at a school where extended family is a practice not a category.
So, it’s fitting that the “artistic-driven” organization, under the leadership of director and a co-founder K. Osei Williams should celebrate itself at very first gala, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY


“Asase Yaa has been instrumental in enriching the lives of many individuals, families, and artists in Brooklyn and beyond, transcending barriers with its diverse arts programs,” Williams, AY, co-founder and current executive director,” told Our Time Press.


“Through these initiatives,” Osei noted in an emailed response to questions, “communities have flourished culturally and educationally, marking a significant evolution over the years. At least two generations of New Yorkers having reaped the benefits of our programs.”


“We have several examples of families that has been through our program and now they are leading major projects in the world,” Osei told Our Time Press, through an email interview. One example, he cited was the large family of brothers, sisters, cousins “and so many more in the Akowe/Halsey/Angaza/Santiago family who have been in engaged Asase for more than 20 years.


“We probably had about 15 direct members from their family and another 30 members that came because of this amazing family. They have been with us in every facet of our program.”
And these families are passing on their learnings, Osei told Our Time Press.


“Some teach for us, others are on our gala committee, and we still have a few that are in our program. This always a great feeling to see not only the impact of Asase Yaa but the impact of families that join us and we build together.”

May month is nationally observed as Mother’s Day, Dance and Awareness of Children’s Mental Health Month, among others. Osei Williams told Our Time Press: “The most therapeutic thing about dance is children are able to express their feelings through movement. And dance, in fact, always helps their self-awareness.


“Also, the confidence that’s created gives our students the motivation to feel free and entitled to do all that they love and live out any goals they have in life. The self-confidence relates to self-image as well as mental and spiritual evolution, he said. “Dance provides a sense of freedom and release and a major way that our students are free is we are aware that not all black kids aren’t born with ‘the typical ‘ballet body type’ but we encourage our students to be “proud” of who they are, where they come from and to always give their all.”

Bed-Stuy’s Oldest Piano Studio Still Creating Young Maestros, after Nearly a Century

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Bed-Stuy’s Oldest Piano Studio Still Creating Young Maestros, after Nearly a Century

The Patricia F. Robinson Music Studio on Monroe Street – a steadfast pillar in Brooklyn’s music community — is celebrating nearly a century of developing musicians and music leaders with performances by a group of gifted students, aged 13 and under, in the prestigious Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, on Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 1pm.


These gifted young music artists, all students of the Patricia F. Robinson Music Studio, will showcase their musical prowess by playing piano with an orchestra, among other instruments while performing a range of music genres at the concert. Ms. Robinson is warmly inviting the public to come out in support of these young musicians “as they take center stage to embark on an exciting musical journey.”

Patricia F. Robinson


That journey began in 1930 in Bedford Stuyvesant, when Ms. Robinson’s late mom opened her music practice. Since then, thousands of students of all ages have played on Ms. Robinson’s pianos in her brownstone, “a beacon of musical education and hope,” located at 590 Madison Street in Brooklyn.


The Studio’s programs focus on fostering a love for music in children and providing them with opportunities to explore their talents, according to the school’s press announcement: “This upcoming performance at Carnegie Hall is a testament to the Studio’s success in achieving its mission: Enriching the community and the lives of our young people.”


The event also underscores the ongoing dedication of the Patricia F. Robinson Music Studio to provide high-quality music education to children in the Bed-Stuy community and beyond. The Studio also is committed to offering enriching cultural experiences that, according to Ms. Robinson, “inspire students to develop their musical abilities, stimulate their creativity, and cultivate a lifelong love of music and the arts that will last a lifetime.”


For information on the Patricia F. Robinson Music Studio, please call 917-214-7297.
Donations to the school are welcome to this school that provides scholarships to those young music-lovers in need.


Note to readers: Our Time Press profiles Mrs. Robinson on May 30, and she will be a Guest Editor in one issue devoted to Music Month during our month-long salute to Juneteenth and June Men’s Month.

On the Billie’s “Fabulation” Revival: It’s Fabulous, and a “Best” in All Categories

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On the Billie’s “Fabulation” Revival: It’s Fabulous, and a “Best” in All Categories

by Bernice Elizabeth Green
The Billie Holiday Theatre’s revival of two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage’s “Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine,” is so good that even the scenery and moving props should “walk” away with an award.


We went to the theatre to see how the great scribe-playwright and wordsmith fashioned two words Undine (after Ondine, a water nymph) and fabulation of Undine into a full-length play with plot for Black characters.


And we were captivated by that and more, the brilliant cast, featuring stunning supporting actors, a kind of Greek Chorus to the story of the title-role character.
In the shared title role are actress Felicia Curry (through May 6) and Kedren Spencer (who picks up the baton, performing, from May 7 – May 19). The supporting cast includes Evander Duck Jr., Alex Gibson, Sharon Hope, Mariyea, Roland Lane, Tito Livas, James A. Pierce III and Kimberlee Walker.


Now, in its 20th anniversary year, the play tells the story of Undine Barnes Calles, a fierce careerist, sharp businesswoman and hot-shot owner of a top public relations firm, who grew up on the other side of town in public housing, loses “everything” when her husband disappears with her bank account, and everything else.

Her friends abandon her, she discovers she’s pregnant, and she has only one option: to go back where she came from her. And when she does, she’s not exactly welcome.


In the hands of another, the play would drift into melancholia and soap opera drama, sudsing with all kinds of allusions to “comeuppance” and “morality” and ‘melodrama” and getting punished. Fabulation, after all is a Nottage play with storyline twists and turns like you’ve never experienced before.


Yet, it is Martavius Parrish’s excellent direction of a superb ensemble cast that brings Nottage’s words to life and makes those words dance. There is not a weak portrayal in this revival. The supporting actors mesmerized, even when standing still, or in the midst of Tutsi high-jumping or low-to-the- flo’ undulating. Actresses who portrayed the girlz-on-the-block, showed up in some scenes as down-home elder-lady roles, later in the script.

The actor who portrayed the money-grabbing cad of a Romeo husband, portrayed, in other scenes, the nice guy Undine, the entrepreneur, would never have looked at twice, but once Undine returned home (and herself) she did. The point is: Parrish made it work, possibly beyond its first incarnation, and right down to scenery and all its uses.

Something we, as playgoers, never imagined we would see at a small theatre, outdoing Broadway. Simple yet magical. So much so we still don’t want to know how the scenic designer and Parrish made it work.


Others behind the scenes deserving credit include Ama McNeil, Lighting; Christopher Vergara, costumes; German Martinez, sound; Nikiya Mathis, make-up, and hair (wait till you see the transformative wig work Ms. Mathis does for Undine); Karen Thornton, Movement (Beautiful!) and Miranda Holliday, dramaturgy.


And Our Time Press congratulates Billie executive director Shadawn Smith, coming up on her 1st year of joining the theatre. Smith oversaw everything and made it all work.
Our Time was well spent viewing this production with other pleased theatregoers.
The Billie Holiday Theatre, 1368 Fulton Street. Tickets: $60. For more information: visit eventbrite.com/e/fabulation-or-the-re-education-of-undine-tickets-861921700007

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