Dateline : Thursday, November 02, 2006
A Case Of "Make the Road" Rage
By Phil Guie

A protest over an allegedly abusive landlord led to an exchange of words with the building's superintendent last Saturday. Thankfully, no blood was spilled - only some water.

The friction started during a rally by the community group "Make The Road By Walking," which often demonstrates on behalf of better living conditions for low-income tenants. Roughly 20 of their members, some of whom wore plastic Halloween masks over their faces, showed up in front of 546 Bainbridge Street near the Queens/Brooklyn border in Bedford-Stuyvesant around noon and proceeded to shout down the owner, Abrahm Soler.

But as it turned out, the tenant whom they were all fighting for needed no help raising a ruckus for herself. Cathy Allan, a member of "Make The Road," also did not need a megaphone to make her grievances heard up and down the street.

Allan claimed to be the only legitimate tenant of the three-story building, which has amassed 116 open housing code violations. She referred to everyone else as a friend of the landlord, who lets them stay there and now uses them to try and harass her into leaving. "These other people are not from the neighborhood," she bellowed. "They're just a bunch of social derelicts."

According to Allan, the campaign of terror included times when other tenants "threw fire" at her as she walked by, left a bike in the hallway for her to trip over, and damaged the basement ceiling in order to make her ground floor apartment collapse.

Supposedly, a judge ordered Soler to fix the latter problem. But Allan, whose name is on the lease of the rent-controlled unit along with two other women, one of whom is her sister Mary, said that they desperately need help. "Pretend this is your mother," she said of Mary, who is paralyzed by a stroke. "You'd protect your mother, and so I'm trying to protect her."

Her words seemed lost on many of the people nearby, although the combination of shouting by Allan and her "Make The Road" compatriots gradually drew the curious out of their homes. But along with the curious came the furious - namely a man who would later identify himself as the building's superintendent.

After sticking his head out of a top floor window to see what was going on, he engaged in a yelling match with the woman, who hollered back from the stoop.

"We can't let social derelicts move us from this place," Allan said. "We all have to help one another or people will be forced out, and the [bad] people will win."

The self-described superintendent did not appear happy to have his Saturday afternoon disturbed by protestors gathered on the sidewalk, and made those feelings known. "Your problem is with the landlord," the superintendent shouted down to Allan. "Why you gotta bring all these people here? I need all this stuff to stop."

When Allan and Make The Road failed to comply, the man disappeared back into his apartment, only to return and dump water on the crowd. He later threatened to call the police.

Allan, however, would not budge. "People are afraid and keep moving, but it's time to stand up and be counted," she screamed.

As police cars arrived in front of the building, the superintendent, whom Allan called the "top man" in the conspiracy to harm her family, came outside. "I'm gonna throw more water on y'all if you don't move," he told the "Make The Road" crowd.

While the officers, who were dispatched from the 73rd Precinct, eventually broke up the mostly-peaceful protest, they allowed Allan to finish venting first. She claimed to have been unfairly targeted by Soler - the result of an owner seeking to get more money from her apartment, as well as vicious rumors circulated by another former tenant.

"We don't sit on the stoop and smoke weed," she said. "[The landlord] will do everything they can to force us out, but we're not going to let a bunch of punks and social derelicts get us out of here."

But the alleged "top man," who refused to give his name, said that he has had no problems with the building's other tenants. He flat-out called Allan "crazy," and said she has never asked him to repair anything. "If she wanted something fixed, we'd fix it," he said.

He also questioned Allan's state of mind, noting that she regularly screams at people walking past her apartment, and complains about things that neither he nor the owner have control over. "Everyone knows when you turn on the heat, there's going to be noise in the pipes," he said. "She thinks that someone's taking the pipes."

Other occupants of the building, who identified themselves as legitimate tenants, seconded that assessment. "She gets up in the middle of the night, and ain't no one will mess with her," said one of them, who also asked that his name be omitted.

With regards to the building's owner, he admitted that he occasionally needs to call 311 to get the hot water turned on. However, he had minor complaints otherwise. "They don't really take care of the place," he said.


PHOTO CAPTION: Resident Cathy Allan rages against "social derelicts" during a "Make The Road By Walking" rally on Saturday."



PHOTO CAPTION: The "superintendent" of the Bainbridge St. building, shortly after pouring water on protestors.)