Riverdale Cooperatives Association re-elects board, continues community advocacy
The annual Association of Riverdale Cooperatives and Condominiums dinner included a board election, which saw all current members return to their positions.
The association’s board includes community members who all serve on the boards of their own cooperatives, including Michael Heller, Theodore Procas, Seryl Ritter, Deena Spindler, Julia Engel, William Weitz and Ed Yaker.
The goal of the association is to represent the interests of co-operative shareholders throughout the Bronx. The association services co-operatives beyond greater Riverdale, with more than 100 co-operatives and condominiums part of the membership.
“We are an integral part of the community, so we have several different goals,” said Ritter, the association’s vice president.
The association serves to educate housing boards and tenants. As such, it offers a number of workshops throughout the year on building matters like code compliance, legal parameters, green energy and local law 11, which inspects building structural integrity.
Spindler, treasurer for the board, said she purchased her co-op in 1984 and has served on her co-op’s board for the last several years in addition to the association’s board.
Due to the association’s commitment to advocating for the interests of the community, it involves itself in legislation and contract negotiations. Spindler said the most successful project the association worked on recently was the contract negotiation for members of local 32BJ SEIU, a union designed to protect property service workers. The agreement, between the union and the Bronx Realty Advisory Board, included wage increases, maintained weekly employee hours to sustain union membership, and maintained union members’ health coverage.
Spindler said the association board sat at the table alongside the advisory board to assist in negotiations and recommendations, which landed them the contract that averted a strike from union members. She said, in previous years during contract negotiations, the union has gone on strike, which alerted her to the number of union workers employed in buildings, as her co-op board had to assign someone to sit at the front door and someone to take out the trash in the staff’s absence.
“I care very much about the Riverdale community and I was always an activist,” Spindler said. “I could never sit by and just say, ‘oh someone else will do it.’”
Spindler said her work on her board is important to her. She previously worked as a teacher, and then an advocate for children with disabilities. Her work on the co-op board, she said, felt like a natural step in her desire to protect the members of her community.
Ritter has served on the board of her home co-operative for the last 10 years. She said it’s important to remember co-operatives are typically the first step in home ownership, and it’s particularly hard to buy a house in today’s market, so low- and middle-income families can build equity and invest with the purchase of a co-op.
“It’s our job as co-op boards to protect those families and so, the more we learn, the more we educate. The more we lobby, the better we do for the families of this community,” Ritter said.
The dinner was the board’s annual check-in for local lawmakers and board members to catch up on new housing legislation and policies.
Councilman Eric Dinowitz gave an update on the approval of the city budget, including $2 billion approved to be spent over the next two years on the creation and preservation of affordable housing.
The evening also celebrated Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz for his dedication to the community and greater Bronx residents, including securing of a rebate for Bronx residents crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge.
Keywords
Riverdale Cooperatives Association, ARC board election, Riverdale co-op shareholders, cooperative housing advocacy, Bronx housing boards, community housing education, local 32BJ SEIU contract, affordable housing preservation, Eric Dinowitz, Jeffrey Dinowitz
