After passing the NYS Assembly, Senate Bill S5881 is in now in “Rules”, waiting to be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor. But with legistlative slots running short it may become another victim of Albany’s problems. Ultimately the NYC art and design scene will suffer: up to 10,000 artists, in Brooklyn alone, are living and working in unregulated industrial buildings and will likely face eviction should the law die in the Senate or not even make it to the floor for a vote.
Thousands have been evicted from their unregulated and unprotected lofts in the years since 1983, the year the Loft Law was enacted. Recognizing the perilous conditions artists, designer and cultural workers live under, the NY State Assembly has, this June, again passed legislation
which would update, expand and extend the original Loft Law to include current residents of loft spaces anywhere in New York City.
The Multiple Dwelling bill, better known as the Loft Law Amendment, but which
might as well be called the Brooklyn Loft Law, has been passed by the Assembly repeatedly only to die, predictably so, before arrival on the floor of the Republican controlled NYS Senate. This year, however, for the first time in decades, with a Democratic majority in the Senate the bill has had a fair chance. That was until the Senate fell into disarray.
This week, after a month of confusion and way behind schedule, the Senate will convene again to pass the most urgent bills and then likely retire for the rest of the summer. Even though in June, 2009, Senator Daniel Squadron introduced the bill in the Senate, cosponsored by Senator Tom Duane, it is now questionable that the bill “S5881” will come to a vote unless Senators are reminded of this bill’s importance to their constituents.
Yet, the 10,000 or so Brooklyn loft dwellers seem blissfully ignorant of of their predicament. Many of them, artists and designers, seem focused on their work, not realizing that the temporary limbo that allows them to exist can collapse within a matter of months. Surprisingly, local organizations, such as the Brooklyn Live/Work Coalition (BLWC), a network of over 2,000 people, which were instrumental in the original formulation of the bill, are now defunct. And the local press and media is no help either. None of the local newspapers or on-line zines or blogs have picked up this story. It is certain though that they will be filled with scathing op-ed pieces
and reports of evictions once it is too late.
Without the State Senators hearing from their constituents, this law might fall between the cracks, mass evictions, as we have seen, especially in Brooklyn, in recent years, are likely. And all of New York City stands to loose.