Advocates Urge Mayor To Reclaim P.S. 64 As A Community Center

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Elected officials and activists rallied Friday at the long-vacant former P.S. 64, demanding the city reclaim the building as a community center after selling it to a developer twenty years ago.

Friday marked the 20th anniversary when the city auctioned off the the former school house to developer Gregg Singer who has sought to convert the five-story building at 605 East Ninth Street into college dormitories. Neighborhood groups have long railed against the project and want the building restored as the CHARAS/El Bohio community center.

Mayor Bill De Blasio fanned the controversy's flames last October when, shortly before the mayoral election, he announced that the city wants to reclaim the building and has done nothing to realize that promise in the ten months since. Now advocates want the mayor to stop dragging his feet and act.

“Twenty years ago city government took a prized asset away from this community, and for twenty years this community has fought to get it back,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer at the Friday rally. “I commend Mayor de Blasio for committing to try to right this wrong, and urge him to direct his administration to move quickly.”

Councilwoman Carlina Rivera called for the building's return as a vibrant center of the arts and activism.

“CHARAS was a space where the Lower East Side came together to explore their love for art, activism and improving the lives of their neighbors," said Rivera at the Friday rally. "While Loisaida has changed a lot over the last twenty years, there’s no better time to bring it back."

The rally also included Assemblyman Harvey Epstein and Rivera's predecessor Rosie Mendez.

At the time, activists vehemently opposed the city's plans to sell the classic school building and at the 1998 auction released thousands of crickets as a last ditch effort to stop the sale. But the auction went ahead and Singer purchased the parcel for $3.15 million.

Singer aimed to develop the property into a 535-bed dorm, but his plans have been tied up in red tape and are on hold because of a stop work order issued by the city's Department of Buildings. As an alternative to reacquiring the school house and opening a community center there, Singer has urged the city to look into the nearby Boys Club of New York clubhouse. Opponents said the idea is a "ridiculous red herring."

A representative for Singer called the Friday rally "retrograde nostalgia" and called on the mayor to take some sort of action on whether the city will move forward with trying to reacquire the property.

"The time for foot dragging, political obstruction and delay must be over," wrote Nicole Epstein in a statement on Singer's behalf. "The larger community must demand that the Mayor finally do something beyond virtue signaling that he wants to give a privately-owned building back to a community group that no longer exists."

The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Photo courtesy of Councilwoman Carlina Rivera