The voting power of the Bronx’s Co-op City
Co-op City in the Bronx is not only a bastion of affordable housing. As a state-sanctioned Mitchell-Lama housing program, it’s also composed of incredibly civically engaged residents of color that make for a very strong voting bloc—an asset for any candidate going into the June primary.
The housing cooperative prides itself on being a multi-generational, multi-ethnic space. Its resident demographics are about 60% Black, 27% Hispanic, and 12% White, and it is considered the largest Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) in the nation with many residents over the age of 65.
“My family was amongst the first families that moved into Co-op City,” said Ebony Hollingsworth, the outreach chair for the Bronx chapter of the Working Families Party (WFP). “Both sides of my family. My great grandmother on my dad’s side lived in the building across from my mom. Her daughter babysat my mother as a toddler. We have greenways. We have community here.”
True to its name, the area operates like a small city within the northeast section of the Bronx, housing about 50,000 residents across 35 high-rise buildings and seven “townhouse clusters” near the Baychester and Eastchester neighborhoods. Co-op City has a power plant for hot water and electricity, three shopping centers, three community centers, eight parking garages, a public library, a firehouse, childcare centers, several houses of worship for different faiths, professional offices, parks, an elementary through high school, and its own public safety officers on the property.
The grounds are operated by the Riverbay Corporation, a 15-member volunteer Board of Directors that are elected annually, and supervised by the state’s Housing and Community Renewal (HCR). The idea for the housing cooperative program that created Co-op City belonged to Abraham E. Kazan, a Russian Jewish immigrant that made his way to New York City in 1904. Kazan dedicated his life to eradicating the city’s abject housing crisis with what was considered
philosophically “progressive” and “radical” solutions at the time, and would later famously clash with real estate mogul Frederick Christ Trump Sr., former President Donald Trump’s father.
With the backing of the United Housing Foundation (UHF), a coalition of labor unions established by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACW), former Governor Al Smith, and former Mayor Al Smith, Kazan launched his first housing complex in 1927. He utilized the New York State Housing Law of 1926, which had “limited dividend” tax abatements for developers that built safe and affordable housing. Later in 1955, the Private Housing Finance Law, or the Mitchell-Lama law, was sponsored by Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblymember Alfred Lama. It financed the building of Co-op City with a mission to house middle-income working families.
It broke ground in 1966 and was completed in 1971. Apartments in Co-op City cannot be resold on the open market.
“To be here, supporting candidates that I truly believe in is so special to me,” said Hollingsworth, as she got ready to canvass door-to-door in Co-op City buildings for the upcoming congressional election. “We need people that actually hear us.”
Some of the most pressing issues the community faces are increasing housing costs and funding for capital repairs to the aging infrastructure.
In 2012, Wells Fargo gave a $621 million government-insured refinancing mortgage loan to Riverbay Corp that helped with apartment repairs.
Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, who’s running for reelection this year, was a fresh face to politics and an established Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School (CASA) founder when he was elected in 2020 over former Congressmember Eliot Engel.
“During 2020, we had Eliot Engel who had served as an elected official for 40 plus years. We appreciated his leadership, however, there’s a time you have to learn to pass the baton and get fresh ideas and make sure you are changing with the times. And that’s something we all saw in Congressmember Bowman at the time when he was just Jamaal Bowman or Principal Bowman,” said Katrina Asante, field captain for Bowman’s campaign for reelection and a 23-year Co-op City resident.
Political watchers agree that the Black and Brown voter turnout in the district as well as an energized progressive wave in New York helped Bowman oust Engel. During his early days in office, Bowman pushed for capital repair funding and mortgage loan refinancing for Co-op City and had to deal with a loss in his voting base when the developments were briefly redistricted out of the 16th congressional district.
“We were devastated and heartbroken to lose Co-op City after my first year because of redistricting. So when I ran in 2022 it was in a whole new district. We only had Co-op City for a short period of time,” said Bowman.
By 2022, Bowman had secured $124 million for upgrades to the heating, ventilation, electrical, and air-conditioning system. “We helped to refinance their mortgage. Free up [$124] million dollars for much needed repairs in Co-op, including replacing the convectors which is key because those convectors were causing fires all throughout Co-op,” said Bowman. “But I think
the biggest thing I’ve done is before I got to Congress I served here as a middle school principal, and so many of the families from Co-op City came to my school. That’s why we continue to have so much support here.”
It’s the combination of dedicated middle- and working-class families with access to fairly stable housing that’s really helped Co-op City become such a sought after voting bloc.
In May, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Assemblymember Michael Benedetto, Senator Jamaal Bailey, and Councilmember Kevin Riley announced a $51 million allocation in the enacted state budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-25. The money is intended to help with capital expenses, operating costs, and the proposed 8.1% carrying charge or “rent” increase on residents, who in the cooperative are encouraged to think of themselves as shareholders, not tenants.
Co-op City also holds its own internal elections for the Riverbay Corp Board of Directors every year, a stirring force for civic engagement locally. Sonia Feliciano is the current Riverbay Corporation President.
“There are so many facets of running a development of this size. We are not perfect but we all strive everyday to ensure Co-op City will always be the best place to live,” Feliciano wrote in her president’s report, which is published in the Co-op City Times’ weekly newspaper.
At present there are 12 certified candidates running for the board in the Riverbay Corp elections: Jaqueline Smith, Mary Pearson, Aaron Carnegie, Shanauzelda Montgomery, Bernard Cylich, Ezekiel Springer Jr., Corazon Fernandez, Sheila Richburg, Kyshawn White, Kevin Foggie, Leah Graham, and Andrea Leslie.
Voting for the board elections caps on June 14, right before the state primary on June 25.
Community members have shown up en masse to make calls and tell their neighbors about Bowman. A plethora of canvassers—including the WFP, Protect Our Power, Jewish Voice For Peace Action, Jews For Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), Met Council on Housing, Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL-NY), and New York Progressive Action Network—are also knocking on the doors of Co-op residents and seizing the opportunity to directly reach out to constituents ahead of election day.
“I work specifically in Co-op City to rally my residents, my people, my neighbors, my family, my friends, everyone, to get out to vote. It’s important to have people-power in an election of this size,” Asante said. “And that’s only because you have money that’s coming from all different directions. Such as Republican, MAGA money for a Democrat.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
The post The voting power of the Bronx’s Co-op City appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.