Monday, March 24, 1997
The city plans to pull the plug this week on a Latino cultural center when it auctions off the former lower East Side school the group has restored and called home for the past 18 years.
Charas/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center will have to find a new home after Thursday, the day the city plans to sell the group’s 605 E. Ninth St. headquarters for as much as $1.5 million.
The Giuliani administration says the group is being shown the door simply because they are not “good citizens.”
Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said El Bohio doesn’t pay its rent on time and has failed to present credible plans to purchase the building itself. Mastro also said the group had allowed members of the notorious Latin Kings gang to use the place for meetings.
The center, with a $200,000 annual budget, funds after-school programs in music, theater and computers.
It sponsors community conferences and discussions for youngsters, low income residents and immigrants with grants from organizations like the New York Foundation for the Arts, the City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Way, NYNEX and individual contributions.
The group has garnered support from artists and politicians, including Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Westchester), Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan) and State Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn).
“If the mayor wants to pick a fight with me, I’m ready for that,” Messinger said. “But he should not pick a fight with the young people of the lower East Side.”
Though they admit a problem with late rent payments, the center’s co-founders, Armando Perez and Carlos Garcia, said the administration’s efforts to take the building is based on politics and the center’s support among Democrats.
Perez and Garcia also admit that they have had Latin King members in the center but only as part of their attempts to reach out to struggling Latino youth.
When the group first moved into the old Public School 64, it was flooded, everything of value had been stripped and the roof had caved in, according to the founders.
“This building would have been torn down a long time ago if it were not for us,” Perez said.
One of three plans El Bohio put forward is to buy the building for $1 and turn it into a combination community center and low income housing development, which would need a city tax abatement and a zoning change.
Mastro ridiculed that idea.
“They offered $1 for more than a million dollar property,” he said. “That’s not a good faith plan.”
