2001 Oct
2001 Oct Vol. 21, No. 10
Focus on...Board Operations
The Men Who Would Be Mayor
With all the recent grief and confusion in our city, it’s almost easy to forget that there was a mayoral primary scheduled for September 11th. Voting had barely started when terror descended on New York. As images of destruction and chaos dominated the media and our everyday lives, the idea of voting in a new mayor seemed the furthest thing from our collective mind. Read More
Let There Be Light (and Heat, and Telecommunications)
1st Rochdale Cooperative Group Ltd. was created in 1997 when a group of New York City housing cooperatives realized that deregulation of the Federal and State electric utility industry might cause their energy costs to skyrocket. Forced into action to protect the interests of the residential cooperative community, 1st Rochdale’s new chairman and chief executive officer Allen Thurgood joined with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)–a 60-year-old trade organization of more than 900 electric cooperatives–to establish the fledgling utility company and empower shareholders to take control of their energy expenditures. NRECA supplied their technical experts on Manhattan’s power supply and helped Thurgood establish a board of directors. And the still-young utility is still working toward their original goal. "We take into account the needs of the market. What’s in it for the customer," says 1st Rochdale’s chief operating officer Greg L. Wortham about the group’s operating philosophy. Read More
The Future is Now
The well-known business guru Peter Drucker once said, "Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions." This is the basic philosophy professional financial planners use in guiding their corporation shareholder clients. Board members who are responsible for guiding their buildings’ financial futures must always consider both long-range and short-range needs and contingencies. Read More
Garage Benefits
If someone were to tell you that as a New York co-op or condominium owner you may be throwing away up to $1,000 a year on unnecessary taxes, you’d probably be pretty indignant, right? No matter who you are or what you do, a thousand bucks is nothing to sneeze at–and you could certainly think of better things to spend it on than taxes. Read More
Washington Heights is at its Height
For the last decade or so, Washington Heights has remained a well-kept secret. A narrow stretch of Upper Manhattan crowned by the picturesque Hudson Heights neighborhood, it is home to many transplanted down-towners, among others. The area, which runs from 155th Street to Fort Tryon Park, has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts, and its reputation is on the upswing. Read More
Of Mice and Men
"…In 1973, I received my Pest Control license and started my business. My first job was in a building in the South Bronx. The owner of the building had given me the keys to the basement, and I remember driving up to the building and thinking it odd that there were no other buildings on that block, but I didn’t give it another thought. Upon entering the 20-by-40-foot basement with my trusty flashlight, I saw one lone bulb dangling from the middle of the room. Its light didn’t come close to reaching the walls. As my eyes grew accustomed to the gloominess, I played my flashlight onto the tops of the walls… where I saw hundreds of pairs of red eyes looking back at me. My first impulse was to run–at this juncture in my life and career, I was frightened of mice–but I didn’t. With my heart in my throat and hundreds of horror movies racing through my brain, I was left with a burning question: Do you really want to be in the extermination business?" Read More
The Sound and the Fury
New York City is famous the world over for being "The City That Never Sleeps", but perhaps, as one sardonic resident put it, "They should call it ‘The City That Never Lets You Sleep’!" Thanks to honking cabs, shrieking trains, hypersensitive car alarms, and the tromping of several million pairs of feet on several thousand miles of concrete sidewalk, the din of the City often takes on a malevolent, almost-sentient character. Read More
Board Education
It’s a common enough occurrence: Jane, who has served on your co-op’s board of directors since the Hoover Administration, makes a surprise announcement at the monthly meeting: she’s selling her apartment and retiring to Florida. This does not upset you much–Jane is something of a busybody–until you realize that she will have to be replaced. Read More
The Age of Consultants
It appears we’re living in the age of the consultant. There are financial consultants, construction consultants, security and management consultants, and those that get you rebates on your building’s taxes and utilities. There are experts to confer with on elevator and roof repair, technology, and insurance, and still others who will evaluate your maintenance service. The question is, do you need all these people and the services they’re selling? Read More
The Letter of the Law
Even the best-running engine–or the most well-built house–needs an occasional tune-up or a fresh coat of paint. So too with governing documents which are so vital to the operation of the place you call home. As times change and people come and go, the documents that direct and guide the course of your building may need to be adjusted or reassessed to best serve the community they govern. The key to making these changes smoothly and with minimal disruption lies in understanding the documents themselves and how they relate to–and differ from–each other. Read More
