HOLLIS

Retired cop, musician, and dynamic leader of Hilltop Village co-op.

What’s one way to get the attention of co-op buyers? Tout that your building has gone smoke-free.

That’s exactly what Mark Hankin, a partner in Hankin & Mazel, says about Hilltop Village No. 1, a Queens co-op for which he is counsel. He handles the closings at the all the Hilltop Village co-ops, and sales at Hilltop Village 1 have increased at a higher rate than at its sister communities (Hilltop Village 2 and 3), which both allow smoking.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, they do love their cigarettes in Queens, a Long Islander may face eviction for burning the wrong kind of firewood and Petey the Pig's "parents" are trying to sell their co-op apartment and fine a more swine-friendly place. There's a Harlem co-op / condo expo April 6-7. And where the wild things aren't is in the late Maurice Sendak's co-op, now up for sale. Plus, for condo and condo and co-op boards, we've advice on mediation.

As a child in 1955, I moved into Hilltop Village Cooperative No. 3 — two seven-story buildings, with 100 units per building, in Hollis, Queens.

It's 57 years later, and I have now spent the last six years as board president. Hard to believe, yet true!