Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely orchestrates the occupation from a chair in her living room. (Photo by Gabriel Stargardter)
Tenants and sympathizers in a dilapidated Harlem apartment building received good news Sunday night, when the Occupy Wall Street general assembly approved a $3000 donation as a gesture of solidarity.
The occupation, which has come to be known as Occupy477, began Nov. 1, when one of the building’s residents, Delois Blakely, urged people to occupy her apartment to protest gentrification and corporate malfeasance. This followed a previous occupation of the building’s boiler room; Blakely said the boiler had been defunct and the door bolted shut for months.
By Monday morning, workers were busy installing a new boiler, thanks to an emergency order by the city.
Upstairs in Blakely’s apartment, 11 protestors had camped out. Tony Cochran, 25, a Portland, Ore., transplant, who doubled as the movement’s ad hoc communications director, was joined by two Senegalese men, a temporarily-absent Norwegian and Semi, 25, a mono-monikered North Carolinian who had trekked up from Zuccotti Park.
It’s a small cadre, but “more than Occupy Wall Street started with on the first day,” said Malik Rhasaan, 39, of Occupy the Hood, which represents people of color and lobbied for Sunday’s donation.
The newcomers were quickly learning that they’d waded, perhaps unwittingly, into a thicket of residents’ animosity, financial mismanagement and looming foreclosure.
The dispute underlying Occupy477 can be traced to a long series of legal wrangles between the building’s various shareholders.
The property on 477 West 142nd St. was abandoned when Blakely, who prefers the title Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely, took control of it in 1978. In 1982, she said, she negotiated with the city to purchase its eight units for $2000.
“I learned how to bring life to the building,” Blakely said.
But by all accounts, few, if any of the residents paid rent for the next twenty-odd years and by 2007, the city threatened foreclosure for unpaid taxes.
“Some people lived here rent free for 10 years, and that’s a mindset,” Blakely said.
In May 2007, Shirley Pitts, who lives on the top floor, replaced Blakely as president of 477 West 142nd Street Housing Development Fund Corporation, the building’s board.
Pitts, a bishop of the evangelical Faith Restoration Center, Inc., refused comment but asked her adviser and fellow bishop, Ken Bey, 64, to speak on her behalf. He said he managed to negotiate the debt with the Department of Housing and Preservation and Development down to $220,000.
The board then borrowed $650,000 from Madison Park Investors, LLC to pay off its debt to the city. The closing “attorney” for the loan was one Nathaniel McLeon who pleaded guilty in 1993 to practicing law without a license.
Nonetheless, McLeon continued to represent the 477 West 142nd Street Housing Development Fund Corporation until last February.
At closing, the board received just under $300,000 of the loan. Bey said the remainder went into an escrow account or was misappropriated by McLeon, who is currently serving six years in Ulster Correctional Facility, convicted of grand larceny.
Neither Madison Park Investors, LLC, nor Thomas S. Fleishell, the corporation’s current attorney, responded to questions.
Now Blakely accuses Bey and Pitts of working hand in hand with what she termed “predatory lenders,” to pave the way to foreclosure so the building can be sold.
Bey disputed this, and said the board is pursuing a civil case against her. He also questioned what happened to the monthly $7,700 rent roll, which Blakely administered between 2003 and 2009.
“She has no lease, no standing, no deed to occupy unit two,” Bey said. “She’s misrepresenting herself to the public.”
“Who is Ken Bey?” was Blakely’s response. “I don’t do business with Ken Bey, never have and never will.”
Recently the building has been vandalized, its front steps smashed. On Sunday evening, the police forcibly removed Francis King, a toothless man in a cowboy hat who claimed to be undertaking maintenance work for Pitts.
“It will not happen again,” King said as he tried to regain entry Monday.
Blakely pointed the finger at King and a man named Frank Kargbo who occasionally inhabited the building’s basement, a labyrinth of dust and unused junk. Bey admitted to paying Kargbo between $40 and $100 a week for maintenance work, and granted that he sometimes lodged in the basement.
Blakely will now defend herself against eviction in the civil case brought against her by the corporation.
Despite the ongoing legal uncertainty – “this is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Semi – the protestors had no plans to leave.
Great work everyone. I consider myself a member of both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the Hood. The groups need to continue to work together to correct wrongs like this story documents. I have not seen this kind of good effective activism since my days in the Civil Rights movement and I hope to see more! I may come up there when I have money and share some songs from the Civil Rights Movement. I’m a singer/songerwriter and play guitar
Lynn, in New Orleans,LA.
Lynn, I have to respectfully disagree with you. It looks to me like the OWS folks, though their hearts were in the right place certainly, were duped into taking sides in a private dispute between the owners of an apartment building. Ms. Blakely is certainly a colorful figure, but I would think twice before helping anyone who uses the term “Queen Mother” as a prefix to their name. She is in a conflict with other people THAT LIVE IN THE BUILDING, not some wealthy real estate baron down town, or the city government of New York who were kind enough to replace the boiler. She admits that she is so special that she won’t even talk to the other side in the dispute. This is not activism, and in fact shows the naivety of the OWS movement..
America used to work The people had work. The system worked. EVEN the Congress used to work…(sometimes). It was far, far, far from perfect – but at least we all had some share in the struggles AND the rewards. But somewhere along the way, we lost our way. And now we have an economy and a political system that works only for the rich. Trickle down economics just leaves most of us out in the rain. We need to get back to what America was, and what it should be, and what it can be. Occupy Wall Street is no longer just a place called Zuccotti Park — Zuccotti Park is everywhere. You can try to pen us in, you can beat us and arrest us, you can mace and tear-gas us , and you can try to “permit” us to death….but you can’t kill an idea. You can’t keep down people’s hopes and dreams for a better life…..a life with dignity and freedom….for us… for our kids. More power to Occupy Wall Street, as it spreads to every town and city – because OWS is us, and for us, and by us. It comes up from the grassroots, and it lifts us up in turn. With OWS America has found it’s voice, and that voice demands fairness and justice. This land IS our land! And we want it back! We want our lives back! We want our future back! Find a quiet place and consider this: We only have one brief life…one chance…and many choices. It’s time to choose, and to act. If not now, then when? If not you, then…..
Congrats to O W S activists for pitching in to see this ” Older Woman ” and her ” Co tenants have heat this winter !
Doesn’t matter about the rights or wrongs of this matter , they took the initiative and it sounds like they have put their hand in their pocket to help with the cost of replacement of the equipment .
Wouldn’t it be great if this inspires more people to help their neighbours ?
ACTION THIS DAY should be seen more often and less of the ” Pot calling the Kettle black ” from the likes of Bey & Pitts ( both claiming grandiose titles in a Church/community ,whatever) that are benefiting from the generosity of those whom the 1% are denigrating !
Mayor Bloomberg does the O W S have to show you how to look after YOUR City ? Time you got a grip fellow and turned New York back into a Community !
I’m very interested to hear where this “doctor” got her Ph.D and what the topic of her dissertation was. Regardless, if she neglected to collect rent for twenty years, it’s her own damn fault that the building she purportedly owns is an utter mess.
In response to Fascinating, Dr. Blakely went to Harvard University and Columbia University.