Harlem's Esplanade Gardens Tenants 'Tortured' By Endless Repairs

HARLEM, NY — Two years of capital improvements being carried out at Harlem's famous Esplanade Gardens complex have been badly mishandled, according to residents, who instead refer to the work as "capital punishment."

"This is not capital improvement, this is abuse of Black people" said Millicent Reddick, one of dozens of residents who gathered outside the affordable co-op complex on Friday to protest months' worth of flooding, collapsed ceilings and a constant intrusion of dust into their once-enviable apartments.

But as residents focused their anger on the co-op's board of directors, leadership fired back, accusing the residents themselves of causing the problems they are protesting.

"Our biggest problem, unfortunately, is our community," said Moiré Davis, Board President of Esplanade Gardens. Davis blamed the flooding on residents leaving their faucets running for days, and chalked up other issues to the buildings' age and their state of disrepair when the renovations began.

A Mitchell-Lama co-op, Esplanade Gardens opened in 1968, with 1,872 apartments spread across six buildings above West 145th Street.

But two consecutive management companies mishandled the co-op's finances and left the buildings in bad shape, Davis said. By 2019, the board had no choice but to embark on a costly $130 million improvement campaign.

"This board said OK, enough is enough," Davis told Patch. "No more expensive Band-Aids — let’s move on and get the property done."

With that began a nightmarish two years for the residents, many of whom are elderly and most of whom are people of color. Other documented complaints range from ripped-out toilets being left in living rooms for months — forcing residents to use port-a-potties — and gaping holes left in walls after botched facade repairs.

Gloria Lowe, who has lived in Esplanade Gardens since it opened, said she was displaced from her apartment for 11 days by flooding caused by boiler repairs. In March, workers repairing the bricks on her building's exterior accidentally busted through the wall, leaving a large hole in her bedroom wall.

"What we're going through is torture," said Lowe, adding that the construction had given her panic attacks.

Friday's news conference was organized by Assemblymember Al Taylor, whose district office is based in Esplanade Gardens, and who said he has fielded "an alarming amount of complaints" about the conditions inside.

"The living conditions for some of our folks have become downright undesirable, unimaginable, unconscionable," said Taylor, who also penned a September letter to the city's Housing Preservation Department, requesting that the agency convene an emergency meeting with the co-op board.

Davis, the board president, insists she has been receptive to complaints, contrary to residents' claims that the board has been difficult to contact. She accused Taylor of trying to score political points, saying he had met with her recently on an unrelated topic and did not raise any complaints.

"They don’t want answers, they want drama," she said.

But residents who spoke on Friday seemed clear-eyed about how their homes had deteriorated. Cordell Cleare, the neighborhood's State Senate nominee, recalled visiting her aunt at Esplanade Gardens as a child, when the complex was "a beautiful place to live."

"These are people who have worked hard all their lives," Cleare said. "Now, in their golden years, they want to sit back and enjoy what they've worked for."

Have a Harlem news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.