We thought the announcement that apartments at Gramercy Park's National Arts Club are coming up for rent at market rate might end the months-long club-wide dust-up that began when president O. Aldon James was found to be hoarding junk in the building. But no! There's still a vocal contingent of unhappy folks, and this time they're unhappy about the fact that the apartments are coming up for rent at market rate. A tipster passes along the letter that the concerned residents have written to the club's Board of Governors. The issue, as per the letter:
"According to Club tradition, the apartments were meant to serve as live-work studios for persons in the arts without regard to whether they were writers, visual, or musical artists. This policy changed dramatically over the tenure of Aldon James with no vote or discussion within the membership. Our group feels very strongly that in order to not fall into the same bad management and cronyistic decision making of the past, the Board needs to put up any new policy for a vote to the membership with full and fair disclosure of all the implications of the options (financial, tax, as well as for the benefit of the artists, and the selection process/criteria)." Sounds like some of the same concerns surrounding Soho's artist-in-residence law have traveled to Gramercy Park. What's more, the tenants behind the letter have resurrected Concerned Artists and Members of the National Arts Club, an organization that arose during a previous wave of club troubles in the early 1990s. Sounds like they mean business.
· National Arts Club Apartments Coming to Rental Market Soon [Curbed]
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