The residents are caught in the city's push to get out of the landlord business. Since Mayor Giuliani took office in 1994, the city has taken more than 100 buildings off its rolls, turning them over to tenants and community groups through a variety of programs. Torres' building is being renovated under the Neighborhood Redevelopment Program, which has already turned 87 city buildings over to nonprofit organizations that take over as landlord. It's one of five buildings in SoHo and Little Italy to be turned over at the same time as part of the city's attempt to concentrate redevelopment targeting clusters of nearby abandoned buildings for private takeover. We want the buildings to be viable in years to come, so we are working to return them to the community.
Renters have the option to buy their own building.
We don't want our building renovated, we just want to be left alone. Asian Americans For Equality, a nonprofit community organization, has passed the city's competitive process to buy the building. But earlier this year, AAFE came under fire when a group of demonstrators converged on the group's Chinatown headquarters. Tensions also have risen in the past year as AAFE began expanding beyond Chinatown, its base, into nearby neighborhoods. Residents have complained that the AAFE is trying to muscle old-timers out to make way for new Asian immigrants.