Is The Dakota The Most Famous Racist Building In NYC?

A former board president of the famous Dakota is suing the co-op board, claiming that they have entrenched racist and discriminatory practices. Former board president Alphonse Fletcher Jr. says in his suit that he was smeared by board members who were trying to block him from buying a second apartment in the building, which has been home to such luminaries as John Lennon, Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall, Rosie O'Donnell, and Rosemary's demon baby. "Although such conduct by a co-op board on the Upper West Side of Manhattan may seem surprising, this behavior was consistent with the defendants' extensive pattern of hostility toward non-white residents of the building," he claims in the lawsuit.

Fletcher Jr., an African-American, went so far as to accuse the board of discriminating against two people in particular, a black woman and a Hispanic man; a source identified the two people to the Post as Roberta Flack and Antonio Banderas. Back in 2005, former resident Albert Maysles tried to sell his Dakota apartment to Banderas and Melanie Griffith, but the board didn't allow it; "We had someone, but then the board, for reasons that they don't tell you, they turned it down," Maysles told the Times at the time (although two other celebrities, Gene Simmons and Billy Joel, were also rejected in the early '00s). According to the suit, board members "made jokes regarding the Hispanic husband's desire to have a first floor apartment so that he could purchase drugs from people on the street."

Fletcher Jr. is seeking the court approval for his purchase of a second apartment, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the board members' "unlawful discriminatory practice." It's hard to believe such discrimination could have taken place in the same building where Yoko Ono once wrote the universal peace anthem, "Give Me Something."

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By Ben Yakas in News on February 2, 2011 4:28 PM

Comments [rss]

BoogieDown

Uh, Antonio Banderas isn't Hispanic. Not that it should matter.

ANGRYGOD11

He is from Spain. Any direct relation or descended relation to The Iberian Peninsula qualifies.

Merf Derf

"Although such conduct by a co-op board on the Upper West Side of Manhattan may seem surprising"

Surprising? Not in the least. No one who has worked with NYC co-ops would find any of this surprising. In fact, this probably isn't even the most juicy bit of gossip to come out of nyc co-ops this week. The people that reside on the boards of these co-ops are half insane

xsquatchx

co-ops suck

Inconcievable de Impublishable

I'm sorry, the board, that elected this black man to be president of that same board, is racist? I don't think I follow.

just saying

But the co-op board itself didn't elect Fletcher. It was the majority of the individual co-op shareholders who elected him. And his lawsuit is specifically against the co-op board (who are the elected representatives of all the shareholders). Just because Fletcher was elected president of the co-op board by a majority of co-op shareholders doesn't necessarily mean that the co-op board itself can't be racist.

It's hard to say how many members of the co-op board might be "racist," but it appears that at least one board member is guilty of self-dealing and favoritism (and probably stupidity). This lawsuit is most likely being based on discrimination since the decision-making actions of co-op boards are governed by the NY Business Corporation Law which make it virtually impossible to win a lawsuit like this, except in cases of discrimination.

Under the NY Business Corporation Law, co-op boards are generally allowed wide discretion in performing their duties. In short, the Business Corporation Law allows co-op boards to be self-serving, incompetent and lazy--but they can't be discriminatory.